Fractures: Teen Titans Season 3
by blackviper327
Summary: Following the events of "Fractured", the Titans face challenges new and old. Villains and heroes will rise and the Titans will grow together as they fight to protect Jump City and beyond.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello again, folks! I'm still feeling the writing bug, so here's the first part of the new series. I'm going into full crossover with the DCAU here, as you may well have guessed, which should make for some interesting material to work with. Anyway, for the sake of the timeline, we're starting at the beginning of Season 3 of Teen Titans. But enough delay, on with the story! As usual, I own dick. Teen Titans is all DC and Cartoon Network's.**

 **Episode 1: A Better World**

"Sector 4 is all clear, Watchtower. Proceeding to Sector 5." Robin spoke into his helmet's radio, swerving between traffic with his teammates close behind, flying just high enough to not interfere with the flow of cars. It was another quiet day, thankfully, and if thing's held up it would be the fifth in a row. He almost couldn't remember a time when crime was rampant, even if had only been two years since things had changed He was proud to be a part of the people making sure it stayed that way, too. So were the others, he was proud to say.

"Changeling to Robin. We've got a protest at JCU, police are losing control. Advise?" The familiar, youthful voice chimed in. Robin frowned as he mulled that over, the others obviously having heard it if the growing scowls were anything to go by. It wasn't always tasteful, but order had to be kept, and it was their job to see to that in Jump City.

"Disperse them. Use whatever force you need." He responded, speeding up just a bit as he continued his patrol. He heard the click on the other side, signing the green teen's acknowledgment.

"Copy. We're responding now. Shouldn't take long, sir." He couldn't quite help but smile with no small amount of pride at his teammate's professionalism. Changeling had done his absolute best to emulate the sense of power and authority, the righteous justice that Superman bore at all times now, idolizing him and the rest of his team. He'd even changed his alias from Beast Boy to try and choose something more respectable after he left the Doom Patrol. It had certainly impressed the rest of them, especially Terra, and Robin was all too happy to have such a dedicated soldier on his team.

The next voice over his comm was older, deep, but just as familiar as Changeling's.

"Robin, this is Batman. I need all of Team 3 to report to the Batcave ASAP. I've got something you're going to want to see." That came as a surprise. Sure, he'd re-connected with his old mentor over the last year, almost got to the point where he was ready to call him father again, but it wasn't like he was invited to the man's lair much anymore, and never the entire team. If he wanted them all there, it must have been for something vital. There was no hesitation, and immediately he raised his hand to signal Cyborg and Starfire to break their route and follow him.

"Copy that, sir. We're on our way." He switched channels then, turning sharply at a corner. "Changeling, belay that last order. We're all to report to the Batcave. The Lords have something to show us."

 **TTTTT**

"Attention!" Cyborg barked when they saw the gathered Justice Lords; Batman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Superman. The teens all snapped to a smart salute, perfectly in unison and unmoving. They looked like any good military unit, garbed in their uniforms (Black bodygloves trimmed with white, polished metal gauntlets, shoulder and shin guards along with heavy combat boots and utility belts. All but Cyborg for obvious reasons, though he'd painted his cybernetics in the appropriate colors.) and as neat as imaginable. Superman turned and gave them an approving nod, raising one hand.

"At ease. I'm very impressed with how you handled that riot last week, by the way. Only ten casualties is a goal we should all try for." They all swelled then, Changeling look positively thrilled at his idol's praise, which only made Terra smile at her boyfriend proudly. It was back to business then, however, with the teens starting toward the massive monitor that was the centerpiece of the Batcave. The Lords were looking up at what looked like an old recording of one of their battles from before they'd taken their rightful place. Robin wondered why they were reviewing such a thing, or what called for his team being here.

"What is this? Some old video of us?" Green Lantern broke the silence, looking intently at the footage playing out in front of them.

"Except we never had a fight like this with Luthor." Wonder Woman added, turning down to look at her husband, seated in his high-backed chair. Batman frowned as he watched the fight unfolding before them; older versions of themselves battling Lex Luthor, which immediately set off alarm bells for Robin.

"You're right; we never did, but they're having one right now." Batman answered. All eyes turned to him in shock.

" _They_?" It was Hawkgirl, looking as surprised as the rest of them at dark knight's announcement. Batman didn't bother turning to look at them as he responded.

"We're looking at another dimension. Live." They all stared at the screen for a long moment then, shocked at the sight before them. Wonder Woman spoke up again.

"It's just like ours."

"Almost." Batman said, pointing to the screen. "But their Flash is still alive."

"So is their Luthor." Superman added, his voice full of contempt for the man fighting their alternate selves.

"They don't call themselves the Justice Lords. They're the Justice League. That's not all." Finally, Batman turned slightly, flipping the screen to another image. This time, it was Robin and all of the others fighting, engaged with some gigantic, rock-like golem. They didn't wear any sort of uniform, however, and certainly didn't have any sort of military training. "They don't have a Justice Lords Youth Brigade, either. It's just the six of you. They call themselves the Teen Titans."

There was a long silence from all parties, the image on the monitor now switched to show both battles unfurling, Titans and League beating back their villains in never-ending struggles.

"It's sad." Wonder Woman said then, looking appalled by what she saw, a trace of pity in her voice as well.

"Yeah. Their world's the mess ours used to be." Green Lantern added in agreement. Hawkgirl frowned at the sight, her mace in hand.

"It's too bad we can't help them."

"Who says we can't?" Batman said then, and Robin swore that he almost heard amusement in his mentor's voice as he gestured to their right. On that exactly cue some strange machine hummed to life before their eyes; a platform with two tall metal poles flanking either side. Between the poles there was a crackle of energy, growing larger by the second until it filled the space between the poles completely, swirling yellow on black. The Lords started toward it then, and the Youth Brigade team followed after them at a respectful distance.

"You've been a busy little bat, haven't you?" Robin heard Superman mutter to Batman. Obviously they weren't getting along as well as they used to.

"What else is there to do around here anymore?" Batman answered. He supposed he could understand that sentiment, but in the young man's books, quiet was good. It meant that they were doing their jobs right. They all stopped before the portal then, looking at the massive construct sternly. Green Lantern turned to face Batman then.

"This can take us to that other dimension?" He asked.

"If we decide to use it." Batman answered.

"Why wouldn't we?" Hawkgirl asked, seeming to perplexed as to why there would be any other option available to them. Batman looked at her with a frown.

"You're talking about helping them. But would they accept it; our kind of help?" They turned back to the monitor then, the battles between the supers starting to wind down, but only for the moment, they knew. It was rinse and repeat in those days, and they were still stuck in them. Because they lacked the strength to do what was needed.

"We'll stand by whatever decision you make, sir." Cyborg said with a respectful nod to Superman, his voice filtered by the full mask he now wore. He'd long since given up all of the human components of himself he dared to in order to better serve the world; only his brain and heart were still flesh and blood now. The others all nodded in agreement.

"Personally." Raven said. "I wouldn't mind showing them what I'm like now that I've got some proper backbone. Now that I'm not afraid of that pathetic worm that calls itself my father." Both Lords and the Youth Brigade looked at each other then, mulling the choice over.

It was unanimous in the end.

 **TTTTT**

"Booya! Another win in the bag and nobody got hurt!" Cyborg cheered, falling back into the couch and swinging his feet up onto the table. Raven joined him silently while the others shuffled off with tired groans. They'd been running ragged for the last week straight, chasing a new influx of villains from Gotham and Central City's B and C lists. Firefly, Bloodsport, Evil Star and Blockbuster had all shown up within the last two weeks, and every day it seemed like another was on their way to try their luck. Starfire groaned as she too fell on the couch, face-down and looking ready to fall asleep on the spot.

"We are needing of a vacation soon, I think." She said, her voice muffled by the cushion. Raven didn't reply to that, simply pulling the control for their Xbox into her hand and switching on the console telekineticly. Cyborg was still surprised they'd actually gotten her to use the thing, but even since she'd found _The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay_ she'd been playing every chance she got.

"Riddick speaks to me." Was all she said when he asked her about her new-found fascination. He had a sneaking suspicion that it was partially motivated by a huge crush on Vin Diesel, but he didn't have the guts to say it to her face. He could see Robin groaning as he reached out to grab a drink from the fridge, and Terra and Beast Boy were slumping down at the other end of the couch, snoring audibly. He sighed, shaking his head and turning to the screen as Raven stealth-killed the first of the prison guards.

"Starfire might have a point..." Robin said, taking a long pull on the bottle of Coke. "Maybe we should see if Supergirl's willing to watch town for a little while."

"You'll have to wait on that, I'm afraid." Cyborg and Raven looked up sharply, recognizing the voice, but not seeing it come from its normal source. Beast Boy was stirring groggily, surprised to hear his own voice, Terra doing the same.

The speaker looked like Beast Boy...at least in his skin-color and face. The similarities ended there however. Where Beast Boy was wirey and small, his stance as carefree and happy as could be most days, this green teenager was broad and muscular, his body in peak physical shape and his hair trimmed in a high and tight crew cut. Everyone was at full alert now, though Cyborg could swear he saw Terra unconsciously ogling the clone or whatever it was, practically seeing the hearts in her eyes and floating above her. More surprising, it looked like Raven was staring as well.

"Who...are you?" Raven spoke up, her gaze suddenly returning to normal as she eyed the intruder. Not Beast Boy turned to her with a firm expression, obviously not in the mood to waste time.

"Changeling. I'm from another dimension, makes sense when you think about it. Time's short so I'll make this quick; Our worlds are in danger right now and we need your help to put a stop to it."

"...interdimensional warlord looking to take over our realities or destroy them?" Robin asked in a tone of ' _Not this shit again.'_

"Not your first time at this, I assume?" Changeling's tone didn't change, looking over the Titans critically.

"Uh...why do I look and talk like a marine?" Beast Boy asked, fully alert now, albeit confused. Changeling turned to stare at his mirror self, frowning.

"Better role models." He turned back to Robin. "Good guess. We're outnumbered on our end and we figured that you'd be interested in making sure our dimensions don't collapse in on each other." All eyes turned to Raven for confirmation of his words. She frowned as she eyed the new arrival with some confusion.

"I can't get a read on him. Like his mind's been altered." She said, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Specialized training, we've dealt with one too many empaths and mind-readers to not prepare. Should I assume you're not interested in saving multiple dimensions?" Changeling's tone was curt, the trace of annoyance unmistakable. The Titans all looked at each other for a long moment, considering. It could well have been trap of some sort, it would hardly be the first time someone had tried something this esoteric to fool them. Then again, dimensional disturbances weren't uncommon these days, it seemed, so it was good a chance that he was telling the truth. Finally, Robin turned back to the mirror Titan, nodding slowly.

"Alright, we'll play along for now. This had better not be a ruse." Changeling nodded in return, gesturing for the team to follow him. He led them down the hallway toward a swirling black and yellow portal, striding toward it's crackling energy.

"Just follow me and follow whatever orders you're given, and we'll have this done as quickly as possible." With that he stepped into the portal, and the Titans followed after him.

 **TTTTT**

The room they entered was purely white, lacking any form of doors of windows, forty by forty feet, and there was no sign of Changeling. It seemed to be little more than the inside of a white box, and immediately Cyborg groaned in frustration.

"This is what we get for trusting strange interdimensional copies of ourselves. How the heck do we get out of here?" Before anyone could response, the walls and floors were suddenly alight with electricity, jolting through each of the Titans. They all screamed as their muscles stiffened and pain racked their bodies, all but Starfire collapsing under the assault. The Tamaranian snarled and tried to form enough energy to blast their way out, but a fresh, more powerful jolt of lightning struck her. Slowly she too slumped down to the floor with her friends, her vision fading before she lost consciousness.

Outside of the box, the mirror Robin looked on with approval as Cyborg confirmed the Titans were subdued. Batman offered no outward expression of his feelings on the work, though Robin expected that he was satisfied with how it had worked out. The others were fixed on the video feed of the unconscious superheroes, marveling at their mirror selves, save Raven who looked disgusted.

"She's still a pathetic little girl. Terrified of our father. I'm going to enjoy showing them what I can do when I'm not bound by that foolish prophecy." She spat out the words. Batman turned to her then.

"You'll be getting your chance. Take Terra with you, scout out their Jump City. Show the scum there you mean business. We'll deploy reinforcements when Superman's team sends in a report." Raven and Terra gave a smart salute, starting toward the portal purposefully. Robin knew they'd do their job with the utmost care, and of course a proper dose of righteous violence to put the criminals in their place.

"Should we put them with the other prisoners, sir?" Cyborg asked of Batman, his fingers flying over the controls before him, letting the box open up.

"Yes. I want them all secured within the hour." Another series of sharp salutes came, Cyborg and Changeling starting toward the unconscious Titans, the green soldier morphing into a gorilla to scoop up four of them under his massive arms while Cyborg threw the other two over his shoulders. Robin turned to the man he had once called his second father, hands folded behind his back.

"Do you think we can really help that other world? With how many super-criminals they have over there?" Batman turned to him, his expression as stoic and unmoving as ever.

"We dealt with that problem once before. No reason we can't do it again." There was a pause, and then slowly, the man reached over to clasp the teen on the shoulder. "I know your team can do this. We'll make a better world of it."

 **TTTTT**

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! You've been a lovely crowd, but now I must be off! The generous fee is appreciated!" Mumbo declared with a bow, the heavy dufflebag of cash swaying over his shoulder as his magically bound and gagged audience struggled against their restraints. Things were going well for once, and the Titans were nowhere to be seen. He wasn't sure if they were distracted by one of the newcomers in town or if they were just under the weather, but he wasn't in the mood to care at the moment. All that concerned him was getting his haul back to his hideout.

He kicked the door of the small bank open and bolted down the street, his speed magically augmented. He could hear police sirens in the background, but he would be long gone by the time they got to the scene. Just a matter of getting into an alley where he could disappear long enough to get a teleportation spell going, just a little further...

Mumbo stopped in his tracks, cursing his luck at the sight before him. Terra and Raven stood there, scowling and floating above the sidewalk. They looked...different, however; Terra's hair was cut short in a pixie style,and in far better physical shape than before. Raven was much the same, and she wore no hood this time. In fact, both of them seemed to be in some new black and white uniform.

"New fashion statements, Titans? Impressive, but a bit Orwellian-esc, I think." Mumbo said almost casually, his wand flying into his hand. The two girls looked disgusted .

"How did we ever stand pitiful men like this?" Raven asked as if Mumbo wasn't even there. Terra shrugged with seemingly bottomless indifference.

"We coddled them. Good thing we learned a better way." Mumbo was visibly confused now. What were they talking about? Didn't they notice there was a supervillain standing right in front of them?

"Well I'm afraid that's a lesson that will have to wait for another time!" The magician shouted, his wand flashing with light. A cloud of doves burst out toward the Titans, both swerving to avoid the avian cloud and providing Mumbo with the distraction he needed to call on his next spell. It was a new one he'd just perfected, and if all worked out it would put these damned kids out of commission for months. He started to channel the energy, his wand crackling with power as he mumbled the words.

There was a flash of blackness before the blue-skinned man and then, suddenly, the energy dissipated. Mumbo blinked, staring at his wand in disbelief.

"What? But...the words were all right..." And then his hand slipped oozily from his wrist. He stared at the stump for a long, horrifying moment. The pain hit him a second later, and he screamed as he fell to his knees clutching his arm.

"Simple. You've been disarmed." Raven said, the white glare in her eyes fading as she let her feet touch the ground. She was smirking as she sauntered toward him with Terra in tow. The geomancer had pulled a large sliver of rock from the boulder she'd been floating on, willing it into the form of a spear. Mumbo looked up at them with terror in his face.

"W-what...t-this isn't you. You don't do this..." He croaked, tears starting to fill his eyes and stain his domino mask. Raven just looked down at him with amused contempt.

"We do now." She turned to Terra then, nodding. Mumbo didn't feel the stone spear pierce his chest, be he was aware of the blood coating the crisp white fabric of his shirt. The pain only him him when the rock had found his heart. A few seconds later the blackness fell over his vision, and he felt nothing ever again.

 **TTTTT**

 **And that's a wrap. Part 2 will be up fairly soon, since I'm still unemployed and have plenty of time on my hands. All reviews are appreciated, folks.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well I promised, so here's delivery, if a lot later than I'd hoped. Enjoy, and I'll get started on the next chapter right after. As usual, I own nothing. Teen Titans is all DC and Cartoon Network's.**

 **Episode 1: A Better World, Part 2**

Cyborg awoke groggily in a cell. He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, and he had no idea where he was now. He could see Raven in the cell across from his, as well as Robin and...Superman. Oh. That was bad. He grit his teeth and tried to struggle against restraints keeping him in place, but couldn't even get his wrists to budge from the heavy metal clamps.

"Don't bother with those. Promethium/adamantium alloy. You're stuck there as long as we want you." Came a shockingly familiar voice. It was his own, filtered and almost mechanical, but still unmistakably his. A figure he recognized as his mirror self stepped before his cell; black and white paint, not a trace of skin left. All mechanical on the outside. Cyborg glared at the other young man, lips pressed in a thin line.

"So what is this game of yours? Get us and the League out of the way so you can take over another dimension?" He demanded, his face set in a look of rage. The mirror Cyborg didn't seem phased in the least by his twin's outburst.

"Just helping to get your home in order. You oughta be thanking us; Raven and Terra already put down one of your regulars. Mumbo was the name." The declaration struck him like a bullet. He'd said it so casually, as if he were talking about a cockroach he'd crushed under his foot.

"They killed him? Just like that, they killed him? Like some kinda mad dog?" The mirror Titan nodded, looking up from the cell's control console and straight at him.

"If you don't treat the little fish like the big ones, how are you gonna stop people like Slade from thinking twice about putting the world in danger? I looked at your CPU, saw your memories. You people had your chance to stop the bad guys for good. Now it's our turn." The finality in that tone frightened Cyborg. It filled him with anger, too.

"Is that what you did with this world? Decided the law wasn't good enough and took over for yourselves?" There was a long paused at that question, the mirror Cyborg staring at his counterpart for a long moment. Then, slowly, he raised one arm and tapped a few buttons. The wave of information hit Cyborg in an instant, the images coming so fast that he almost couldn't make sense of them even with his enhanced brain. Gasping, he looked back at the other in horror. "You actually did it. You...the Justice Lords...you did it."

"Yeah. We made a world that's finally safe. Where people never have to worry about some maniac with magic tearing up a city block for laughs. Where they don't have to fear some alien invader deciding Earth would make a nice jewel in his empire's crown. Where people like Robin and Terra will never have to worry about being used and twisted by a one-eyed monster." The scariest part about that was that Cyborg could tell his twin believed it. Every word of it. Another pause followed, and then the Titan looked the young Justice Lord squarely in the eye.

"And all you had to do was make Orwell's nightmare real. How's the saying go? Give up your freedom for security, you don't deserve either, and you lose both." That seemed to touch a nerve, if the sudden stiffening of his body was any indication. Down the other end of the hall, it seemed the Batmans were having a similar discussion, though theirs ended abruptly, the Justice Lord Batman starting towards a struggling Flash.

"What are you looking at!?" He could hear Flash shout at the other Batman, who stopped for a brief moment to glance at the Leaguer before he continued off down the hall, toward the stairs leading up to the control booth above them. The other Cyborg started to walk away as well, not responding to the last outburst from his prisoner. Not that Cyborg would have cared for whatever the bastard had to say; authoritarians were the same everywhere. Fascists, Marxists, Maoists, it didn't matter; they were all the same, saying they protected the little guy while they planted a boot on his throat. For several long minutes he remained still then, trying to find any hole in the cell's security, to no avail.

When he heard footsteps clattering on the steel floor, he looked up to see the Lords Batman bolting toward Flash's cell, looking absolutely panicked. He could heard the cuffs hastily removed...and then suddenly Batman flew backwards into the hall. The Lords Cyborg bolted out as well, his white noise cannon extended and aimed into the cell. He didn't have time to fire before he was swept off his feet by a blinding red streak from the cell. Flash picked the unconscious teen off the ground, and then zoomed toward Batman's cell. He couldn't heard what the Leaguers said, but a minute later Flash returned, going down the line of cells and freeing the heroes one by one. Cyborg was the fourth to be freed, after Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter. Superman was the last, and he looked absolutely pissed after he'd ripped the metal binding over his eyes off.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to kick some serious ass." The Man of Steel grated as he stepped out of the cell. Flash was there immediately,arms crossed as he stood in his friend's path.

"You're gonna have to wait on that. They've got Hawkgirl in a hospital somewhere."

"You need to find out which one she's in before they hear about this." Batman chimed, already turning away from the group.

"I'll guide them. It might be a mirror, but it's still my city." Robin said, moving to the front of the gathered heroes. "Guessing you've got your own business, Bruce?" Batman nodded, pulling the batclaw from his belt.

"I've got a portal to find. Something I have to do on my own." With that he zoomed up onto one of the higher floors, leaving the others to their own work. Robin turned to face them all, his face stern as could be.

"They won't keep her in any of the normal hospitals. We're the bad guys here, so it's either Arkham or Blackgate. I'm thinking two teams; I'll take the Titans to hit Blackgate, the League takes Arkham." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Alright, we keep in communication. This isn't our world, so we can't take any chances."

"Alright, Robin. We'll contact you when we get to Arkham. Don't hesitate to call us if you need help." Superman said, nodding to the Titan leader before turning back to his own team. "Let's get moving, people. We don't have any time to waste."

 **TTTTT**

The Meta Prisoners Wing of Blackgate was simply ugly. It was separate from the rest of the prison, resembling little more than a massive, windowless concrete cube sitting in an open area that seemed unnecessarily big, but was that size so that prisoners who could phase through solid matter would either run out power or have to come up for air before they could reach the end of the perimeter wall. The wall itself was tall enough that even a prisoner with super strength would have a difficult time hopping over it, and thick enough to provide them a challenge in breaking through, and was topped with barbed wire. At each corner there was a massive sniper tower manned by two guards, who, in addition to the .50 caliber rifles, also carried LAW launchers in case one of the stronger prisoners decided to take a stroll; They were _not_ of a hesitating nature.

It was all ugly. This Blackgate was a monument to ugliness, serving the ugly purpose of keeping super-powered prisoners that the Justice Lords had deemed threats to the public order away from the world, or at least those they couldn't come up with a good enough reason to lobotomize or simply execute. It's name served as a warning to anyone with super powers that thought of using their abilities to break the law, a synonym for hell on Earth.

Robin could only imagine what life must have been like inside those walls.

"So...how are we gonna do this?" Beast Boy asked a bit hesitantly, looking straight at the gatehouse leading into the Meta Prisoners Wing. "I mean, won't the costumes tip them off?"

"We'll say it's a fashion choice." Raven said simply, floating up to the guards at the gate. The armored man shot up from his seat immediately, rifle in hand.

"Halt! What's your business here?" He barked harshly, joined by two others with heavy caliber rifles of their own. Raven glowered at them firmly, putting on her most threatening face as she strode toward them.

"We're here to question a prisoner. Are you questioning our authority to do so?" Her voice was low, commanding, and more than a little intimidating. The guards paused for a long moment, noting the difference in appearance among the Titans. It seemed fear had won out, though, since they lowered their weapons and, meekly, started back to their posts.

"S-sorry to bother you, Ma'am. Go on ahead. Just...l-let me open the gate for you." The gate was as solid as the rest of the prison, sturdy enough to stop a bulldozer, taking a full five minutes to open wide enough for the group to walk in together.

"So...basically we just act like bullies and in charge?" Beast Boy questioned. Raven nodded, looking back to the changeling with a faint smirk. There was another fence after the first, this one made of wire, and it had to be pulled aside by two more guards. Cyborg whistled as he scanned the prison, then promptly stood back to his full height and put on his most commanding face.

"They've redone everything. I'm reading an insane amount of power out of that place. They must be sucking up half the juice from the power plant." Said softly, trying his very best not to attract more attention than necessary. The sights as they delved into the prison confirmed Cyborg's words; Every doorway was flanked by a pair of wall-mounted turrets, and above each doorframe was what looked like a miniature Tesla coil. Robin _really_ hoped they wouldn't have to fight their way out.

"Sir." A voice said from their right, the source a tall, stock bald man with a permanent sneer and green-tinted goggles. From his suit, Robin guessed he was the warden, and he snapped a smart salute to the Titans. Playing along, the teen nodded, stepping toward the man with his best commanding presence.

"Warden. We're here to have a word with one of your prisoners. The Thanagarian." Robin said, putting all the authority he had in his voice. The warden nodded, obviously used to these kinds of requests.

"Of course. We've had to put her in solitary, so it might be a bit mess. She's...unstable." The big man said, gesturing for the Titans to follow him and the pair of heavily armed men.

Solitary, as it turned out, was little more than a long row of holes in the ground in the far side of the prison yard topped with massive slabs of metal topping them. Most of the 'cells' were open, though two were firmly sealed, with six men meandering around the yard. Robin was initially confused as to why they would ever think it was a good idea to put solitary right next to the wall, but then another look around told him that it wasn't a half-bad idea. Anyone that broke out of these cells would be right there in the open, perfect fodder for the guards in the towers, in contrast to inside the prison where they might be able to use cover.

"She's right here, sir. Careful with her, never sure what she's going to do." The warden chimed, gesturing for the two guards that had come along with them to open the cell. When the hatch was finally pulled free, Robin stepped forward, looking down into the dark, metal-reinforced pit, so small around that someone Cyborg's size would have no choice but to stand or squat. The figure inside was most certainly Thanagarian, given the large wings, which were tied back with heavy chains. The hair, however, was a bright, tangled blonde mop. When the woman inside looked up weakly, her face worn and utterly defeated, there was no doubt left in Robin's mind. It wasn't Hawkgirl.

"Who is this?" Robin demanded, turning back to the warden, only to be met with a rifle barrel aimed squarely at his face. The warden was smirking openly.

"Paran Dul. Little leftover from when the Thanagarians paid us a visit. Hawkgirl made sure we knew they were coming. Just like the Youth Brigade let us know there was a chance we might be getting some...unusual visitors." The other Titans were dropping into fighting stances, the guards on the ground and in the closest tower training their weapons on the teen heroes. "Come along quietly and you won't have to experience the lovely accommodations we've given her yourself."

"All of you against five metas and me? I wouldn't like those odds." Robin said confidently, staring right at the warden with a faint smirk. The man's expression didn't change.

"True. Which is why we sent a distress call to our own friends. They should be here shortly." Well, _that_ was a bad sign.

"Titans, go!"

 **TTTTT**

The fight began so quickly that Starfire had almost lost her life in the first few seconds. The heavy caliber bullet screamed past her ear so closely that she could almost feel the metal graze her skin, and she had to soar sideways sharply to avoid the storm of lead that followed. She had to remind herself that though these men looked like and claimed to be police, they were on the side of oppression, and so it was her duty to fight them. The first of her starbolts struck the first guard that had fired at her, striking him in the chest as he tried to aim another shot at Beast Boy, and the next two sent his fellow the in the tower scrambling for cover. Around her the other Titans were trying to avoid the storm of bullets sailing past them, and the warden was screaming into a hand-held radio while he fired from his own pistol.

Across from her, Cyborg blasted one of the guards across the yard with the white noise cannon while giving the sandwich of knuckles to another, already having piled several at his feet. Beast Boy and Terra had gone back to back, the changeling morphing into a hulking polar bear and swatting away one ambitious guard who had charged at them with something that looked like a cattle prod while Terra deflected bullets with small stones, hurling fist-sized rocks back at the shooters in their towers as they tried to ready their LAW launchers. Raven shielded them from the heaviest of the weapons while Robin smashed the radio from the warden's hands with his staff, then sent several teeth flying with a deft back-swing.

"I am thinking we should go now!" Starfire shouted, ducking under a cattle prod and sending the woman sailing sideways with a sharp cross. They could fly out, she supposed, being as close to the wall as they were, but they would be totally exposed to the guards in the towers; they'd likely need to get rid of them first.

"Best idea I've heard all day, Star!" Robin shouted, rolling away from a hail of buckshot. He spoke into his communicator. "Superman, she's not at Blackgate! We're on our way back, but we're going to have to fight our way out!"

"Damn right you will!" Another voice, strong and female, shouted, and then the Titan leader was suddenly swept off his feet by a blur of black and white. It took Starfire a moment realize who it was that was now beating Robin against the ground; It was a mirror of one of the honorary Titans, Donna Troy; Wondergirl. She was joined a moment later by Changeling, her own mirror self, and another whom she didn't recognize, but who wore a strange blue and black uniform that almost seemed insectoid, in sharp contrast to uniforms worn by the other Youth Brigade members.

They were going to have a bad time.

"Beetle, Cyborg and Terra. Starfire, yourself and Raven. The fool's mine." Changeling commanded, his eyes narrowed and lips pulled into a firm scowl. The others obediently set to their tasks, with the one called Beetle extending a pair of blades from his arms, slashing at Cyborg's chest while his chest glowed a bright blue before it discharged explosively out at Terra. The blast swept the geomancer off of the rock she had been floating on with a scream of pain.

"Terra!" Beast Boy cried in horror, immediately trying to rush to her side, only to be swept off his feet by Changeling, now in the form of the strange horned dinosaur she'd seen in one of the movies Beast Boy had loaned her; Carnotaurus, she thought it was called, though this one was not anywhere near as big as the one in that film. Beast Boy morphed himself as the towering green monster strode toward him, charging right back as a great short-faced bear. The two met with solid crash, teeth and claws tearing at flesh. The carnotaur sank its jaws into the bear's shoulder, lifting his foe bodily off the guard and slamming him back down.

"Idiot child! Slacker! You're just a pathetic little clown pretending to be something greater! You don't deserve to be called a hero!" The mighty beast roared, Changeling's voice projecting through the monstrous visage, his foot planted on her friend, now in his human form again."You don't even deserve Terra!"

"Shut up, you nazi!" Beast Boy screamed defiantly, suddenly throwing off his opponent with a morph into a tyrannosaur. Starfire's attention on the fight was broken when she saw her mirror self attacking Raven, a long, constant blast of energy she had never been able to accomplish without passing out striking at the empath's shield. Gritting her teeth, the Tamaranian shot up into the sky at incredible speed, tackling the mirror as hard as she could. The other Starfire didn't seem too phased by the attack, quickly slamming an elbow down into her face and then kicking her aside, eyes glowing green as she worked together another blast of energy.

It was cut short quickly by a sweeping claw of darkness and a cry of those familiar, magic words. Raven frowned at the mirror Tamaranian as she quickly lost altitude, but started to right herself. Raven wasn't having any of that, and followed up with a solid wall of darkness that slammed the alien down to the earth. Beneath them, Cyborg was bobbing and weaving around the blades, slamming his first into Beetle's face when a wide swing left him open. Terra had started to regain her footing as well, and she gritted her teeth while the dagger of stone shot forward into the strange backpiece he wore. It sparked and smoked loudly as the stone tore into it, and Beetle screamed in agony before slumping forward, the blue armor pulling back into that strange pack to reveal the wearer beneath; young, Hispanic, his hair cut into a short mohawk. Starfire didn't recognize him.

Across the yard, the two shapeshifters were still embattled together, blood running down the bodies of the two tyrannosaurs. One seemed to be wobbling on its feet, the other slamming its massive head into its ribs to send it sprawling down. There was no way to tell which was theirs, so they could do nothing but wait until they morphed back to their human forms. Their hearts fell when they saw that it was Changeling standing atop Beast Boy, both now in their normal forms, the larger teen raining blows down on their friend with his bare hands.

"Get away from my boyfriend!" It was Terra, screaming towards Changeling like a bullet on a flying rock. The muscular green teen barely had time to look up at his attacker before the rock collided with his chest and he was sent to his back. Terra, still raging at seeing the boy she loved bloodied so by his mirror, swung a boot-clad foot at Changeling's jaw then, and Starfire could see the satisfaction on her face as she heard a sharp crack. The shapeshifter didn't move again, breathing shallowly. Satisfied that he was done for, Terra bolted to Beast Boy's side, helping him to stand.

"Thanks, Terra. Was getting tired of listening to him tell me I'm not one of the good guys." He said, then winced as he felt one of the nastier bites irritated.

"Wait, where's Robin?" Raven asked, looking around the yard.

"Right here." They all heard him say, their looking look only slightly less battered than Beast Boy. "Wondergirl's down, don't worry."

"Uh...guys...not to ruin the moment, but..." Cyborg chimed, bringing all their attentions back up. The guards had reformed, aimed squarely at them. Almost at the same time they noticed, several other black and white clad teens landed in the yard, mirror versions of several of the honorary Titans; Speedy, Hotspot and Rose Wilson were among them, as well as three others they couldn't immediately identify. "Well...damn."

They'd all dropped in position to fight again, though there seemed to be little hope that they'd be walking out of this prison.

Salvation came from an unexpected source.

"Stand down. All of you." The voice was familiar, deep, and commanding. Starfire had heard it only a few times, but she knew that it held a special connection to Robin. The mirror Batman landed between the Youth Brigade, eyes narrowed and his stride purposeful as he approached the Titans. He stopped before Robin, looking down at the teenager with a cold gaze. "You know me, Robin. You know what I can do to you all if you resist."

There was a long pause, Robin staring back at the mirror of his mentor, his father. Finally, he let his shoulder sag, and his staff retract and lower. Batman nodded in approval, then, turning back to the Youth Brigade, he spoke again.

"I'll take them back to our special cells myself. They won't be escaping again." The seemed satisfied with that, and all six of them snapped a salute as the mirror Batman gestured for the Titans to follow, rifles and missile launchers launchers trained on them the entire way. When they were out of earshot of any of the guards, Batman spoke again, to the surprise of all the Titans. "When we get out of here, you're going back through that portal. It's just Terra and Raven there. The others are waiting for you."

Robin stared at the man for a long moment, almost stunned by the words.

"Beat the other one, then? Suppose there's worse plans than this."

"I _am_ the other one." This time Robin really was stunned, unable to move for a long moment as he stared at the other Batman, all of the Titans balking in nearly identical expressions. The gray-cowled man just frowned, jerking his head to signal them to keep moving. "Don't act so surprised. You know me."

 **TTTTT**

"So without your Flash, the Justice Lords went rogue?" Flashed asked of the mirror Batman as he prepared the teleporter for transport. The League and the Titans were gathered beside the portal, waiting impatiently for the process to be done with.

"It wasn't quite that simple" Batman responded with a slightly annoyed tone to his voice. Flash looked amused, leaning against the console.

"Hey, he was the conscience of your group, and that means I must be..."

"Come along, Jimeny." Green Lantern barked, still carrying the unconscious frame of Hawkgirl. The portal was ready a moment later, and the gathered heroes began their march back to their own world. Only Batman and Robin had paused to look back at the other dark knight.

"Give me just a minute, Bruce. I'll see you all back on the other side." Robin said, then without another word started toward the other Batman. His version understood, or seemed to, if the way he simply nodded and went through the portal was any indication. The other Batman raised an eyebrow at the outburst, looking down at the Titan leader curiously. Robin didn't have to think long on his next words.

"When the Justice Lords...did this...how quickly did it take me and my team to go along with it?" He asked of the man, his tone low and serious. There was a pause, Batman mulling over how to answer that. Finally, he spoke.

"Two months, for you. You were...resistant to the idea at first, but...Dick and I managed to convince you. The rest fell in line when you did." The answer seemed to leave Robin a bit disappointed. Obviously he did not like the idea that any version of himself would be a part of this kind of world.

"So that's it then. One bad day and we could be like them?" The words were a mix of anger and dread, emotions Robin knew all too well. Another pause, then suddenly broken by a hand clasping on his shoulder. Batman nodded down to him.

"No, Tim. Not while they've got _this_ you leading them." He gave the boy's shoulder a squeeze, and then gestured to the portal. "Go. You've got some of our people to stop."

Slowly, Robin nodded, pulling away from Batman and starting toward the portal. Before he walked through, he turned back long enough to say one last thing to this Batman.

"Thank you, Bruce."

 **TTTTT**

"Please...I'm beggin' ya. Don't do this..." The pitiful little man croaked, feebly trying to crawl away from the two teenage girls. Raven felt a malicious grin cross her lips as she levitated the broken rebar, poised over the man's back as she strode toward him. Terra was cleaning up the last of the stragglers in the other room, pathetic smugglers that thought moving illegal guns into the city was their ticket to quick riches. They'd proven them wrong here today.

"Don't do what? Deliver proper justice, scum? You were fully intent on bringing more weapons into Jump City, putting them in the hands of more crooks. Now you're never going help them hurt anyone ever again." The pushed the rebar into the smuggler's back slowly, and he screamed as the sharp, rusty metal bit into his flesh, grinding against his spine.

"That's enough, Raven!" A familiar voice shouted, and the half-demon turned in alarm to hear it here. Here four glowing, red eyes went wide when she saw who it was. It was _not_ the Robin she had been expecting, nor were any of the other familiar faces she saw. Starfire and Cyborg frowned at her with energy crackling in their hands, ready to strike if she made the slightest move. Fading through the wall beside her, the other Raven, her weak, old self appeared, her hood down as she glared at her mirror. "The Justice Lords insanity here is over. You're going back where you belong."

Raven laughed bitterly at that, the sharp-toothed grin returning to her face as she kicked aside the smuggler. She didn't know how they'd managed to escape back to this world, but it didn't matter. She'd crush them all the same, and bring about the proper vision the Lords had for this rock.

"You really want to challenge me? Fine, then. I'll crush you all, just like we did to that pathetic little worm Mumbo. Terra, get in here. We've got bigger fish to fry." She spoke the last part into her comm, knowing that her geomancer compatriot would pick it up loud and clear.

The was no response.

"Terra, do you copy? I need back-up in here."

There was a sudden, explosive crash from the right wall, and Raven had to shield her eyes from the cloud of dust and rubble. When the smoke and dust cleared, she looked down to see her Terra laying semi-conscious in a heap of collapsed masonry, and the other Terra and Beast Boy looking over at her triumphantly from the hole in the wall.

"Sorry about that. She was mad that she couldn't rock the long hair like I can, had to settle her down." The Teen Titan Terra said, already calling up slabs of the wall from the pile her teammate was laying in. Raven's blood went a little colder.

"Well...poop."

 **TTTTT**

"Just got word from the League; They got the Lords under arrest and they're sending them back to their world, de-powered." Cyborg announced as he stepped into the living room, everyone else having been waiting for an update for the last hour. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief, Terra and Starfire collapsing onto the couch. Robin simply nodded, looking to each of his teammates with a tired gaze. They'd handed the mirror Raven and Terra off to the police the first chance they got, and he imagined that the League would pick them up on their way to send the Lords back.

"Good. That's not an experience I'm going to want to repeat." Raven droned, joining the other girls on the couch, floating the Xbox controller into her hand.

"Just one moment before we all relax, guys. I need to say something." Robin announced, and he was glad to have the team's full attention immediately. He looked over each of them; tired, beaten, but happy to be back. There was a trace of something else, though, he saw; Fear. Luckily, that was what he planned to address. "What we saw...the Justice Lords...our world's only a few bad days away from becoming like that one. I asked their Batman how long it took us to get on board with their plan. Two months, he told me." They all looked at him in what might have been horror, anger, or both. He couldn't blame them.

"He also told me he not to lose hope. Their way of doing things, it's ugly, mean, vindictive." He looked around at the Titans slowly, and he let a faint smile cross his lips. "Lucky for us, and the Leauge...we don't like our heroes ugly and mean. We're not going to be like them. Not as long as we remember what heroes are supposed to be like."

They all beamed at that, and Robin felt a surge of pride rise up as he looked at his team. No, they'd never be like the Justice Lords. They were too much Titan for that.

 **TTTTT**

 **Sorry that took longer than I hoped, folks, but that's a wrap for this episode. Not the best I've ever done, I'll admit, but I think it turned out pretty well. Anyway, thanks for reading, any and all feedback's appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hell again, friends and neighbors! It's time once again to get another chapter done, and I'm motivated now to outdo myself from last time. Not gonna lie, I wasn't as happy as I'd hoped I'd be with the last episode, though I hope it was entertaining enough for y'all. Anyway, onto the next episode! Wasn't sure about doing a Terra-centric one so soon after What If?, but damnit I like this story, so here it is! As usual, I own nothing; Teen Titans is the property of DC and Cartoon Network.**

 **Episode 2: Thicker Than Water**

Terra wasn't usually a fan of formal occasions, especially black tie events, but when they were for a good cause, she could handle it. The clothes shop had been happy to provide her with a nice, fancy black dress for the occasion, and she had to admit, she looked great, especially next to Beast Boy in his own sharp black tux. She gave his hand a little squeeze when he seemed a little nervous to be out in front of so many high society types, earning a smile from her green boyfriend.

"It'll be fine. We're just here to give this thing publicity. Think of the families." She said, kissing his cheek then, making him blush like mad.

"From our honored guests, the Teen Titans; Robin, Starfire, Terra, and Beast Boy." Came the polished, somewhat snooty voice as they walked down the stairs into the ballroom, a round of applause following at their arrival. There were around a hundred people there at the moment, mostly rich folk from around California, and a few from Gotham, all in their best dresses and tuxedos, and most of them there just to promote how great they were to the rest of the upper crust. Charity balls were something new to the Titans, save Robin, and the two teen heroes had looked to their leader for guidance. He'd simply smiled and told them to be themselves. After all, that's what they were there for; to draw attention to the charity, put a few more high-profile faces on it. It had worked, too, with a small fortune having been raised for the families living bellow the poverty line. The organizers had been a little disappointed that the full team couldn't be there, but someone had to be on watch, and neither Raven or Cyborg were ones for this sort of thing.

"It'll be quick, guys. We'll dance a little, get some free food, smile for the camera and be out of here." Robin assured them all, though Starfire looked a little disappointed; She obviously wanted to stay for the whole thing, if for nothing else than to be with Robin as long as she could. Terra imagined her alien friend would be able to talk their leader into staying, and it was always fun to watch Robin blush whenever she played up the cute faces.

Looking out at the crowd, she realized she could already recognize a few famous faces; There was Bruce Wayne himself, chatting it up with a pair of very pretty ladies in dresses that had to be worth as much as the T-Car. Kate Kane was there too, laughing along with a strong-looking Hispanic woman as they danced together with the other couples. Robin had looked surprised at that, just staring at the two for a long moment, and he was hardly the only one doing so.

"Wow. I never pegged Detective Montoya for..."

"She is a friend of yours, Robin?" Starfire asked curiously, not the least bit phased by the damn near scandalous sight. Snapped out of his frozen moment, Robin nodded to Starfire, coughing a bit into his fist.

"Yeah, from when I was still in Gotham. One of the best cops on the force." He explained as they all started toward the ballroom floor. They'd been practicing their dancing for the occasion, though it seemed that all but their leader were nervous about actually performing in front of the crowd. Beast Boy especially was awkward in his steps as the two couples began to move together, his attention constantly shifting between Terra and his feet. The geomancer couldn't help giggling softly, matching each step with well-practiced grace (for the most part, anyway.)

"Heh...I never even got to go to prom before...this." BB said, looking down at his green hands holding Terra's. "And now I'm dancing with my girlfriend at a ball. Just wish mom and dad were here to see this."

"They'd be proud of you. Everything you've done." Terra said, looking the changeling in the eye with love and warmth. "Love you." Beast Boy was about to respond to that, when suddenly the announcer spoke again.

"From the kingdom of Markovia; His Royal Majesty King Viktor Markov, Her Royal Majesty Queen Katrina Markov, His Royal Highness Prince Brion Markov, and General Artyom Kobiashvili."

Terra's eyes went wide at those names, her head snapping back toward the stairs they'd walked down not fifteen minutes before. The quartet of people standing there were all as well-dressed as could possibly be; A tall, middle-age man with graying red hair cut in a meticulous flattop and moustache, sporting the broad shoulders of a man once in the peak of fitness, though now the muscles had begun to turn to fat, his tuxedo accented with a bright red sash. Beside him was a statuesque blonde woman of around the same age, her hair done up in an elaborate bun, her diamond necklace easily worth the entirety of the charity's proceeds. Behind them, a young man with red hair that looked to be a much younger version of his father, handsome and tall. Lastly as the largest of the party, a gigantic man easily as broad as the other two men put together, bald head shining and his salt-and-pepper goatee adding to his commanding, and rather terrifying presence.

"What are they doing here?" Terra asked, halting completely in her tracks as she tried her best to keep out of their line of sight. Beast Boy blinked in surprise, obviously confused as to what was wrong, and worried as to her sudden panic. Then, slowly, realization dawned on him. He remembered what she had told him those two months ago at the dinner; They were her family.

"Terra, just relax. Everything will be fine." He tried to reassure her, turning with his girlfriend to shield her from the oncoming royalty.

"Your majesty, I'm glad to see your family could attend." It was Bruce Wayne that spoke, bowing before the king before he offered his hand to shake. The older man nodded with a smile, shaking the billionaire's hand heartily while his wife seemed to look in distaste, and his son in awe.

"I am glad as well, Mr. Wayne. Our countries' ties have been far too weak since the Soviet collapse. I can only hope this diplomatic tour may help to rebuild our friendship." The King of Markovia said, his English as polished as his dress shoes.

"Even if it does mean spreading the wealth around to the peasants. I suppose sacrifices must be made." The Queen added with some distaste to her voice, obviously not interested in being involved in the event. Beast Boy realized then that it wasn't Bruce Wayne that their son was balking at.

He was looking right at them.

"Everything alright here?" Came a soft, female voice then, causing both of the Titans to turn to face the speaker. Kate Kane stood there with a polite smile, Renee Montoya at her side and looking respectfully toward the two superheroes. "Your friend looks like she's seen a ghost."

"Yeah..we're fine. Just...some people I didn't expect to be here." Terra answered, still looking a little panicked at the situation, desperately trying to avoid the gaze of the red-haired boy to no avail. Renee looked up at their gawker a bit suspiciously, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Should I ask security to keep an eye on them? Or have a talk with him myself?"

"No!" Terra said as sharply as she dared then, looking to the detective desperately. "Just, please don't draw their attention. I don't want them..."

"Tara?" It was the Markovian Prince, Brion. Too late to pretend she hadn't seen him. She squeezed Beast Boy's hand hard, looking up to him with fearful eyes. She loved her brother, but if he knew that she was were, then her father would soon as well. So would the queen. Slowly, very slowly, she started to turn, putting on a weak smile as she watched Brion approach them. Renee looked ready to step between them, but Kate stopped her with a gentle hand, watching the little mini-drama with a surprisingly stern gaze, as if she had some idea of what was going on.

"Brion...Your Highness, its been a long time." Terra said, trying to sound as confident as she could manage, standing beside Beast Boy with her hands in front of her. Brion simply stood there for a long moment, staring at the blonde Titan. Then without warning he threw his arms around her in a tight bear hug, overcome with emotion. None of them had seen that coming, and could only stare at the Markovian prince as he embraced the girl. He eventually released her, realizing that such a display was probably going to attract a whole lot of unwanted attention.

"Tara...I never thought I'd see you again. Where've you been?" The prince asked, obviously overjoyed to see his sister again after so long. He took a step back when he noticed the suspicious looks given to him by BB, Kate and Renee, doing his absolute best to look non-threatening.

"I wandered a lot after da-...His Majesty sent me away. Lived on the road mostly. I ended up here about three months ago, joined up with the Titans." Terra said, her voice as calm as she could manage. She turned to Beast Boy then, taking his hand in hers. "Brion, this is Beast Boy. My boyfriend. BB...this is Brion. My brother." Nobody looked especially surprised by that introduction, which to Terra confirmed that Kate Kane knew a bit more about them than some random Gotham heiress really should. She'd have to wonder about that later, though.

"Well, a pleasure to meet the man that could win her heart. Better treat her well." Brion said to Beast Boy, his tone friendly but carrying the edge of brotherly protection instincts. Beast Boy, thankfully, met it with that simple boyish enthusiasm of his.

"Wouldn't dream of doing different, dude. She's the best friend I've ever had, and I love her." Brion seemed satisfied with that answer.

"So you're a superhero now. I guess that whole project wasn't a waste after all..." He stopped himself then, realizing that he'd touched on an extremely sensitive issue. "I'm sorry. I...I forgot it wasn't as good for you as me and the others."

"It's alright. It was a long time ago. Things are a lot better now." Terra said, smiling softly to the older teen, reaching out to give his shoulder a squeeze. "It's good to see you again. How are things back home?" She asked, having decided that there was no point in trying to avoid the attention and subject now. The prince paused at that, his expression falling slightly.

"It's...not so good. Mom and dad are fighting. A lot. The Southern Kasnians are still attacking the border now and then, and a lot of the peasants in the North want to secede and join them. We're having a lot of trouble with Russian gangsters, too. The army's begging us to start putting more metas to work keeping the peace."

"Let me guess;" Kate chimed in, nodding over to the hulking general now chatting with Wayne. "He's one of those pushing for metahuman soliders? Come along to talk into your parent's ears, negotiate with some private firms while they're in America?"

"General Kobiashvili? No. He's my father's cousin and a patriot, wouldn't dare go against his wishes. He's just here to help with the tour and keep security." Brion said defensively of the man, looking a little offended at the redhead's questioning. Kate didn't look convinced, still eying the general suspiciously. By now the King had noticed his son was missing, and looking around the ballroom for him., he spotted the group, and his eyes went wide with recognition. He made no move to approach them, however, just mouthing curses in Markovian as he balked at the unexpected sight. Both Terra and Brion realized that they'd been spotted, and they looked more than a little worried. Thankfully the king seemed to have decided against approaching his long-lost daughter, his face having taken on a decidedly sad, almost broken expression. The Queen, however, was certainly _not_ looking sad to see the Titan. Her scowl was as cold as ice, and her eyes blazed with such hate that it would have turned steel into butter. Terra did all she could to avoid that gaze, moving so that she was hidden behind BB, Kate and Renee.

"She still hates me." Was all she could say. Brion simply nodded, his own expression a mix of sadness and anger she'd seen many times when she was a child. He'd never liked his mother much, the way she treated the palace staff, and the way she regarded Terra. She remembered a lot of screaming matches between them. "Guess I should have seen that coming."

"Just ignore her. This isn't Markovia; She can't hurt you here." Brion said fiercely, the protective instincts kicking in.

"I take it there's a story there?" Renee asked, looking between the two siblings. They looked at the detective, their expressions telling her everything she needed to know. From the corner of her eye she could see Robin and Stafire stopping their dance, now noticing their teammate's distress, but before they could approach, there was a commotion at the stairs again, though this time the sounds were far from the usual fanfare. There were shouts of alarm, a few commands from security for someone to halt. The gunshots followed a moment later, and everyone turned to see what was happening. \

"Look out!" Someone in the crowd shouted as several smoking cylinders flew into the crowd, bright orange clouds filling the air when they landed and sending everyone near them into choking fits of agony. Terra had only been faced with teargas once, during a training exercise she'd done during her brief time with Slade, she still remembered it as one of the most physically painful experiences of her life. She brought one hand up to cover her mouth and nose and backing away from the clouds, knowing it would be of little use, but better than nothing.

"Ladies, gentlemen, Titans." Came the booming, heavily accented voice from the top of the stairs. Terra and the rest of her group looked up to see the speak, flanked by several heavily armed men in flak and camo. He was one of the biggest men that the geomancer had ever seen, garbed in a midnight blue leotard, his face hidden by a mask of the same color slashed with blood red, giving him the general appearance of a luchador. His hairy arms were bare, and his left hand had been replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic in the form of a heavy gun, a cable running back to some sort of power supply on his back. "Please, forgive my interruption of this event. My business here will be short. Do keep your heads down, and no more than necessary will die."

She knew this man. He was a nightmare that had terrorized Markovians since the last days of the Cold War, and even now was a name that silenced children into obedience from Eastern Europe to Egypt. He was a man had killed nearly four hundred people in his life. No, no he wasn't a man, not by a long shot.

It was the monster that had been named The KGBeast.

"You ought to know by now, Knyazev." Came Robin's voice in response, carried over the crowd by Starfire, then launched out at the cybernetic super solider. "Our business is stopping yours." The birdarang sailed from his hand toward KGBeast the second he'd finished speaking, only for the giant Russian to bat it aside with contempt. The gun arm rose faster than a man his size should have had any right to move, pumping 7.62mm rounds in Robin and Starfire's direction, the other men with him opening up as well. Her leader barely kept ahead of the storm of lead, launching another of his birdarangs at one of the other thugs, knocking his AK-74 aside and leaving him wide open for Starfire's downward tackle. The man was sent flying backwards into the ground, slamming into an elaborate marble fountain and shattering it into a hundred pieces. She'd turned then to swat another gunman aside, but suddenly found herself screaming in agony as a string of bullets tore across her back. 7.62mm was not quite strong enough to break Tamaranian skin, but the impact was more than enough to send the wind from the young alien's lungs, and send pain racking through her body. Falling to one knee, she tried to turn and counter her attacker, but the vice grip around her arm pulled her off the ground and sent her hurling toward Robin, who'd be rushing to her aid. They were both sent rolling down the stairs, with KGBeast following shortly after them. When they'd started to rise, the Russian villain simply unclipped another of the teargas grenades from his belt and tossed it almost casually at the pair, sending them both choking and writhing on the ground. Now he was coming straight for Terra and the others.

"Well, Tara," She heard Brion say, his eyes starting to glow bright yellow as the earth beneath them shook, Beast Boy already morphing into a huge bear. "I guess we'll get to fight together after all. Just like we said when we were little, right?" She nodded to him, smiling grimly before turning back to the monster striding toward them. Thankfully, almost all of the normal people that hadn't been caught in the teargas had realized this situation was way beyond any of them, and they bolted for safety, save for one brave, grossly fat millionaire and libertarian California senate candidate who charged at KGBeast with the largest chair he could carry while shouting for the Titans to run.. Either too focused on his target or completely dismissing the man as a theat, the villain barely flinched as the chair was smashed over his shoulder and back. Without even bothering to face his attacker he shot out his natural hand and seized the fat man by his second chin, lifting him off the ground and bringing his gun arm to remove his head.

"Leave him alone!" Terra shouted, ripping a slab of rock from the floor and hurtling toward the monster in blue and red, a trail of basketball-sized stones following her. KGBeast looked over sharply, hurling the millionaire toward her. A flash of green sailed between Terra and the flying man, however, and before her eyes there was a green gorilla scooping up the millionaire, setting him down gently on the ground. Terra took that opportunity to send three of the huge stones out like cannonballs toward KGBeast. The super soldier's reflexes were quick as the stories had claimed, rolling out of the way of the attack. Even from her flying slab of rock, screaming toward the mercenary, she could hear a click from the cybernetic arm, and then a softer explosion that before from the gun. She dipped her slab up to try and deflect the bullets, but couldn't stop one from stricking her in the collarbone. Surprisingly, she didn't feel blood run down her chest, or flesh split, or metal ripping into her. Just an agonizing impact that sent her flying backwards to the ground.

" _Rubber bullets?"_ She thought as she hit the ground. The wind had been knocked from her lungs, and she tried to get up off the ground. _"Why? He's an assassin. A hired killer."_ Realization dawned on her, and horror filled her mind. _"He's here for me. He wants me alive."_

A scream of rage came from across the ballroom then, and turning her head she saw Brion flying toward KGBeast on his own stone slab, hurling sharpened stones at his opponent again and again, Beast Boy following closely behind in the form of a great bear again. The Russian assassin cursed in his mother tongue as he dodged the flying stones, and the swiping claws of the green bear. His men were pinned down at that moment, and to Terra's surprise she saw that it was Kate, Renee and Kobiashvili engaged in the firefight with the other mercenaries, semi-automatics either snuck in by the detective and general or taken from the unconscious goons, she didn't know.

Staggering to her feet after finally feeling some breath return to her, Terra looked just in time to see KGBeast lifting Beast Boy off the ground in one hand, and pumping several rounds into him with the other. No blood, thank God, so he was still using rubber bullets. It earned an agonized roar from the shapeshifter, however, and the assassin kicked him aside into the stairwell, then turned his gun on Brion. It boomed once, twice, three times. Both of the men snarled as they felt the other's attacks hit them, a thin trail of blood spreading across the shallow gash in KGBeast's chest, and the teenager staggering back from the rubber bullet impacting with his gut. Brion tried to summon up another storm of stones, only to catch another bullet in the chest, sending him onto his back. Terra hurried to his side, starting to lift the slab she'd flown on to hurl at the monster in front of her. Another jolt of agony shot through her, however, this time squarely in the center of her chest. She fell, landing beside Brion gasping for air and trying to rise to face her attacker. She didn't see the gloved fist slam down toward her, but she felt the punishing blow starkly. She was aware of her body being lifted up, hoisted and thrown over another's shoulder, warm and hairy, before it all went black.

 **TTTTT**

"I've got ten security guards dead, six more wounded, at least fifty three people getting treated for teargas, six armed men and a goddamn Russian murder machine running loose, three of you injured, and one Titan and a fuckin' Markovian prince kidnapped by said Russian murder machine." Growled Commissioner Reuben 'Rooster' Krenshaw, JCPD, to Robin as the paramedics treated the cuts he'd sustained in the battle. Average height, a little overweight, balding and with a mustache that just completed the image of a car dealer, Krenshaw was most definitely not in a fine mood as he took a long, angry drag on his cheap cigarette. "What other shit can we throw on? Is Deadshot gonna drop on in to pop the mayor? Oh, or maybe Harley Goddamn Quinn's gonna screeching in with her girlfriends to rob every jewelry store and bank in the city? What else, boy wonder? What other shit can I throw on this steaming friggin' mountain of shit?"

"Easy, Rooster. You're still on your heart meds." Renee Montoya said, putting a hand on the commissioner's shoulder knowingly. He turned to give the detective a brief scowl, then, slowly, the expression melted, and he threw his hands up. "You haven't been here long enough to forget Gotham either. This is an average case there these days." Krenshaw sighed deeply, shaking his head in disgust.

"Yeah, I know. Why I came out here, Montoya. Thought I was done with this kinda shit." Another long drag on his smoke before the cop flicked the butt aside, looking around the destroyed ballroom. He turned to Robin. "You fought this guy before, right kid? What's his move?"

"He's going to complete his job. That's all he cares about after killing." Robin said, wincing as the medic slipped the needle into his arm again. "We need to get one of his men to crack. Not going to be easy, though. They looked ex-military, Russian, maybe even spetsnaz. Resisting interrogation's taken to a whole new level there."

"Hell, feel free to drop by the station an' say hello to 'em then, kid. You seem to know this shit." It was fairly obvious the Krenshaw knew damn well the limits of traditional police in these kinds of cases, and Robin was happy to have a cop in charge that was ready to let them do what they needed to, within reason. The teen just nodded.

"I'll do that. Have your people watch for Eastern European men celebrating tonight." He was about to continue when there was a commotion across from them. Beast Boy was pushing both police and medics aside, his face contorted into mask of rage that he'd never seen on his teammate before. He stepped in front of the shapeshifter then, looking him squarely in the eye.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Where do you think, Robin? I'm going to find Terra. I can track her scent. I'm not letting them get away!" He shouted defiantly, already trying to push past his leader. Robin slapped a hand down on the smaller teen's shoulder then, stopping him in his tracks.

"They'll have thought of that, Beast Boy. If you go after them now they'll just be waiting for you." For a moment, he thought BB would just break free and run out the door. He could see the desire to get out there any hunt down the kidnappers like animals. Instead, he just stood there for a long moment, then, with a scream of utter frustration he morphed into a huge gorilla, swinging one meaty fist down onto the nearest table and snapping it in half like a twig. It caught everyone off-guard, and Krenshaw started reaching for his pistol on pure reflex before stopping himself. BB's rage didn't last very long, as he morphed back into his human form, storming off toward the adjacent dining room. Starfire obviously wanted to comfort her friend, but Robin held up a hand. "I think he'd rather be alone right now. We've got work to do now, anyway."

 **TTTTT**

The second Beast Boy was alone, he felt the tears start to well and run down his cheeks. Again. Someone had taken Terra again, and this time it wasn't for some sick game of manipulation either. He had no idea what that freak was going to do with her, and it only made it all the worse. As much as he wanted to be out there looking for her, to hunt KGBeast down and bring Terra home, he knew that Robin was right. There was no way in hell he could beat that monster on his own. He felt like breaking everything in the room, screaming his lungs out until he couldn't feel the rage anymore.

"This pain, anger. I know it well, Titan." Beast Boy turned sharply, surprised to see the Markovian general, Kobiashvili standing across the room from him, his tuxedo covered in a layer of dust and debris from the firefight. He kept a respectful distance from the young hero, and his hands at his sides. "His Highness looked much the same when the princess...Tara, was sent away. Nearly caused Her Majesty to disown him."

"Yeah...I'd guess so." Was all he could saw, looking down at his hands. He'd failed her, again. He'd sworn he'd never let someone hurt her like she had been before again. Another promise to someone he loved broken. He didn't bother trying to hide the tears now. "I need to find her. I don't care I get killed or whatever. I just need to do it."

The big man only grunted, still looking as stoic, and oddly fatherly there in the doorframe. He turned to look back at the police investigating the crime scene, questioning witnesses, then back to Beast Boy.

"His Majesty has retired for the evening. He is...distressed, as you can imagine. I cannot offer much, but if you need aid, I am here. I cannot allow this attack on the royal family to go unpunished. His Highness, Brion...Tara. They must be returned." He had to admit, the guy certainly sounded sincere. He looked up then, nodding slightly to the general.

"Thanks...we'll get the prince back too. Both of them." That he meant. That was a promise he was going to keep, no matter what the cost.

 **TTTTT**

Dmitri Tarkov was a happy man that night, taking a long drink from his flask of whiskey with one hand and groping at the little tramp's rear with the other as he stepped out of the club. He couldn't remember the last time he'd celebrated this hard, not since the days when he was still serving in the Motherland's army, after one of the peacekeeping missions that would always end with guns and wine, and one or two village girls for his bunk, at least. It was his first time in an American club as well, and he had not be disappointed, having seen it live up to all of the stories that his small circle of friends spoke to him of.

Knyazev had led them to victory once again, and he'd drank enough to kill a horse in his name tonight. Then again, anything was a good enough excuse to drink when you got right down to it. Tonight, though, it was definitely worth celebrating. He couldn't wait to see his bank account tomorrow morning, now that they had both of the children. He didn't know or care what those oh so secretive clients were planning for the geomancers, only concerned with how many American dollars they could send his way before it would be back to the Balkans for whatever shitty little petty war was going on. Probably Kasnia again, though at this point he had to wonder how those savages had any troops left to fight a war, or had the money to pay others to fight for them.

In his drunken stupor, he urged his 'date', a recent immigrant from the Eastern part of Siberia who spoke a little Russian, down the alley, begging her in his slurring growls to give him a preview of what was to come. It was deserted, after all, and nobody was going to fuck with him here. He could break any pathetic mugger, even in his delirious state. He almost didn't notice when the girl in the blue cloak seemed to walk right through the brick wall of the nearest building into the alley, or the boy in red, green and yellow dropping from the fire escape above him. His tramp had sure noticed, though, bolting the second she saw them, leaving Dmitri baffled as to what was going on.

When his eyes focused enough to make out the figures approaching him, his lips pursed into a scowl. The Titans, two of them at least. Or was that four?

"Heh...you are...very good finders, children." He slurred, raising a mocking toast with his flask. "But I am afraid that your time is wasted, I think."

"You say that now. Wait a while." Said the girl in the cloak; Crow, or some other sort of trash bird. He didn't care about these American superheroes.

"Where did your boss take Terra and Prince Brion? Why?" Said the other, some other kind of bird he couldn't recall. Dmitri laughed, laughed hard from his belly like a rich fat cat with cavier.

"Oh, this is cute. You think you are scary! Scarier than The Beast! You are wasting time, children." He shooed them away with a dismissive wave, reaching for his flask again. He barely felt the tendrils of dark energy wrapping around his chest and legs, pulling him in face to face with the Crow girl, her eyes blazing white now.

"You're damn right I'm scarier than him." She said, her voice low, slightly resonating with magical energy. Dmitri just stared back at her, taking another swig of whiskey.

"I am not impressed." There was another clatter of someone landing behind him, louder this time.

"You're getting a little rusty, Robin. This isn't how you interrogate someone." This new voice was female as well, but older, harder. The Crow girl dropped her tendrils in surprise, and Dmitri turned to get a look this new would-be hero. She was tall, pale-skinned, almost chalk white, with red hair down to her back, half of her face hidden behind an extremely tall mask. What he noticed most of all, however, was the bright red bat on the front of her black slimline suit. She grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, tugging him forward with surprising strength for one her size. "This is how you interrogate someone."

Suddenly, Dmitri was flying, sailing up the side of the apartment building as this redheaded Bat...woman carried him up on some kind of grapple. His drunken delirium was shocked to a halt when he was roughly thrown onto the roof, the woman starting toward him with piercing white eyes.

"Alright, Dmitri. We're going to answer those kids' questions now."

 **TTTTT**

 **And that's a wrap for this one. An all-nighter before I'm to Knotts Berry Farm with the family. I'll be getting to work on part 2 as soon as I get home. Read and review folks! Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

**New and improved part two of this episode! I cringed at the number of errors I made at this upon reading it again after a long time, so hopefully I got it all this time around. Made some minor story edits too, so hopefully it feels less cluttered this time around.**

 **As usual, I own dick.**

 **Episode 2: Thicker Than Water, Part 2**

 **TTTTT**

"You're leaving now?" Robin asked of the man before him, his hands adjusting the red silk tie he'd changed into after the attack at the ball. Bruce Wayne, the man that had raised him after his father had died, nodded grimly to the Titan. Obviously he wasn't any happier about the predicament than he was.

"I need to get back to Gotham. Scarecrow's broken out of Arkham and partnered up with Doctor Destiny. You know how dangerous those two are on their own." Bruce said, packing the last of his luggage and snapping the suitcase shut. "Kate's staying behind to help."

Robin was still getting used to that last idea. Katherine Kane, only returned to Gotham for a little over a year, socialite, heiress and Bruce's cousin, was _also_ a masked vigilante. He realized after he'd went through that again in his head it actually made a little bit more sense than he'd originally thought. Rich, a tragic history, and professional combat training? That was practically the entire checklist for a superhero in Gotham.

"Yeah, she's already been a big help. Wish she could have told us she was dropping in, though. Raven was a little annoyed at having her prisoner snatched up like that." Robin lamented. Bruce just smiled at that, starting to heft his suitcase (probably loaded with a few of his favorite toys, in case he needed to don the cowl unexpectedly.)

"One more thing you should know;" Bruce said as he started for the door, stopping just shy of opening it as he turned back to the younger hero. "I did a little checking in on Knyazev's aliases on a hunch. There was a rather large deposit of Markovian rupels to Artiom Zenoviev's account less than a week ago."

"Let me guess;" Robin said, eyes narrowing under his domino mask. "A shell company that led back to someone close to the Markovian royal family? Or the military?" The older man nodded grimly.

"I traced it back to a Dr. Helga Jace, the research lead on Project Sturgeon. It was a program made to create metahuman soldiers after Superman's little Apokalyptian brainwashing adventure. By all accounts it worked, too. They gave Terra and Brion their powers, and after that they tried for a full platoon."

"So what happened?" Robin asked, now _very_ curious as to this lead. "What you're saying sounds like it was shut down. At least officially."

"It was." Bruce added. "King Viktor ordered the project team disbanded after one of the lead researchers was caught trying to sell data and material to Southern Kasnian Liberation Front. Everything was confiscated and put into storage. Dr. Jace was entrusted with securing it all."

"So now she's starting the project up again and taken Terra and Brion as test subjects." Robin said with clenched teeth and balled fists. Bruce nodded again, his face set grimly.

"So it seems. She's probably not operating alone. Someone with a lot of money is funding her." He looked out at the city then, a bolt of lightning flashing in the backdrop of the skyscrapers. "The question now is who?"

 **TTTTT**

The first thing Brion Markov heard upon awakening was his father's voice, angry and loud. He was aware of the fact that he was floating in a research tank, the very same sort that he'd spent days at a time in when Project Sturgeon was still active, though he could barely see outside of the glass, and had to struggle to turn. The people were blurry blobs, and he was only able to identify individuals when they raised their voice. His father was shouting at three others, one towering over the rest.

"What have you done to my son? He was not a part of this arrangement!" Arrangement? What arrangement? Another voice spoke, female, and shockingly familiar.

"He is necessary for the project, Your Majesty. He and Tara were the most successful subjects from the original experiments. We required both to provide the greatest possible chance at retrieving a viable genetic sample."

"And did that require kidnapping him and killing so many?" The king growled as he stepped toward the smallest of the shapes, obviously female from the voice. The largest moved between them then, and his father stopped his advance.

"You should not question my methods after you've already signed my payment. I've delivered what I promised." It was The Beast, though Brion couldn't believe the words he was hearing. His father would never have anything to do with that monster. The man had lived through Knyazev's reign of terror in the Cold War, had personally seen the bodies that he'd left behind when the Russian's terrorists had torn through their country. There had to be an explanation for this, something to make sense of the idea that his father would ever stand before a man that had caused their country so much pain.

His heart shattered a moment later.

"That...that you did, Knyazev. That..." He saw his father turn then, looking directly at the tank. "And more." The king paused for a long moment, one hand moving to press against the glass as he looked in at his son. "May God have mercy on me for what I have done."

"Pray on your own time. We have more urgent issues now. One of my men disappeared last night. I don't think I need to tell you who took him." The Beast said, looking directly at his employer, Brion now had to acknowledge. His father nodded, his hand leaving the surface of the tank as he turned back to Jace and Knyazev.

"I expected as much. The Titans are some of this country's best. I can only hope that what we produce will be of similar caliber." He mused, almost so softly that Brion couldn't hear the words. The form he guessed was Dr. Jace looked sharply toward the tank as her equipment began to whir and beep.

"Your highness, Prince Brion is awake." She said with a tone of annoyance in her voice. Immediately she was moving toward the console beside his prison. "Apparently the dosage of the tranquilizer needs to be adjusted."

"No!" His father barked at his lead scientist, striding toward her with loud, determined steps. "You will not drug my children any more than you already are. I will not see them suffer any more than absolutely necessary." His tone left no doubt as to his sincerity. The prince of Markovia prayed that meant that his father could see reason and end this madness, whatever it was. Jace, meanwhile, was taken aback by the outburst. She looked over to Knyazev questioningly, but it seemed he was in no mood to provide answers. Finally she relented, stepping away from the console.

"Very well, Your Majesty. I will leave you to him, then. Knyazev and I have business to attend to in the meantime, with your leave." Then she and Knyazev were gone, leaving only his father and the last of the trio behind. He could only guess at who it was, though if his father was here, it leaned to it being only one other person.

"What has happened to you, Viktor? You were such a strong man once. You always talked of how important our country's security was to you, how we would reclaim our dignity after what the Russians and the Kasnians did to us." It was indeed his mother, and by her tone, she was disgusted with her husband. "Now you are too soft to let a second son and a bastard do their duty to the fatherland."

"Perhaps I was never as strong as you thought I was." His father said, his voice low. Then without another word the King of Markovia started out of the room. The Queen, meanwhile, looked up at him in his tank, arms crossed. He couldn't see her face, but Brion imagined the cold sneer she almost always wore.

"You and your bastard sister have ruined him, you know. Your weakness, your inability to do what is necessary spread to him over those last few years. I will rebuild him, and Markovia as well. Your brother will serve our purposes far better than you ever did. Oh, Gregor had nothing to do with this, before you ask. But I'm sure that he would understand. After all, he was always the best of you, a true son of the Fatherland." She turned then, speaking to some unseen person in the lab. "Begin the next series of injections, formulas B1 through B12. Have their blood analyzed after. We need them prepared for transport back to Markovia ASAP."

Brion had forgotten the needles, right up until he felt them push into his neck and arms. The familiar agony of the chemicals running through his veins filled him, and as he began to scream into his mask, he swore he could hear Terra in that same pain.

He swore then that he'd see everyone here brought to justice, right before he blacked out again.

 **TTTTT**

Starfire frowned as she looked up at the whiteboard as Mr. Kane...Batwoman...addressed the other Titans in full uniform, another of this 'Bat Family' Robin had been a part were all gathered in the living room, going over their plan of action for freeing Terra Prince Brion. Beast Boy still looked crushed, and she could hardly blame him. It was the second time the one he loved had been torn away from him, and from experience she knew that he'd do anything to bring Terra back. She'd always felt pride in him for that strength, like a younger brother she had watched grow into a young man. He was still growing, and she wondered what he might become later. Batwoman brought her back to reality.

"It's a basic set-up. The warehouse is a front, owned by a shell company based in Ukraine. Looks legitimate up top, but it's got some very illegal workings beneath, going by how deep the basement levels go. There's at least two sub-levels, and a scan shows high concentrations of promethium." The redheaded woman said, pointing at several markings on the whiteboard. "We're not sure how many guards they have in there, just that it's mostly ex-Spetznaz and KGB, if our pickled friend can be believed. Wouldn't be surprised if they've got Russian mafia ties either."

"Promethium means big, thick doors." Cyborg said with a frown, looking at the little drawings critically. "It'll take a lot of boom to bring those down if I can't get into their security."

"Right, well that being said, it looks like a frontal approach is our best option. If Knyazev went to as much trouble as he did to take Terra and Brion alive, then I doubt his employers would kill them just to spite us when we get down there. Only one way in or out, too." Kate said, nodding over to Hawkgirl, then to the others. "We leave in twenty minutes. General Kobiashvili will be waiting for us."

They dispersed a moment later, off toward the T-Car or, in the cases of Robin and Batwoman, to their motorcycles. Under most circumstances, Starfire would have preferred to fly, enjoying the sensation of the wind in her face to distract from the horror of tonight's events. Not now, though; not with the state Beast Boy was in. It was the same as how Terra had been when he'd been taken all those months back. She knew words wouldn't be of much comfort at that moment, but her presence would remind her friend that he wasn't alone. There was little spoken as they made their way toward the warehouse, Beast Boy looking out the window the entire ride. Cyborg parked roughly half a block away from the warehouse, not wanting to alert the enemy sooner than they needed to. The others were already there, the hulking form of General Kobiashvili waiting among them as well. He'd traded his tuxedo for dark BDU pants, a sleeveless shirt and a combat vest no doubt stuffed with ammunition, a compact AK-74 hanging from a sling. Robin frowned at that, to which the big man merely grunted and gestured toward the warehouse.

"I will aim low." Was all he said, hefting his gun and jerking his head for them to follow him. They moved as silently as they could toward the warehouse, cordoned off with a chain-link fence and patrolled by two uniformed guards, probably from a security firm with no knowledge of what was going on. Batwoman was on that problem in an instant, though, swooping down and snatching one of the guards off his feet and into the air. For a moment they lost sight of the two, but within a few minutes they returned, the Leaguer setting the man down rather gently, where he rushed over to the front gate. He wasted no time in opening it up for them, looking more than a little frantic as the Titans and their guests practically strolled right on in, most of them looking a little surprised at the easy entrance.

"I explained the situation to him. Seems like he's eager to prove he's not in on this whole 'kidnapping' situation." Batwoman said with a faint smirk, already starting toward the front door with, the guards practically bolting to get out of their way

"And now the easy part is over. You said a frontal attack was best, well..." Raven droned, approaching the front door of the warehouse. Standing in front of the group, she raised her hands and started to chant the magic words. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

The doors flew inward with an almost explosive force as the wall of darkness slammed through them, catching three men totally by surprise. Their weapons fell to the ground with metallic clatters while they themselves flew backwards screaming into the stacked crates surrounding them. Five more shot from where they had been playing cards, ripping their guns from holsters and bolting for cover.

"Nam nuzhna pomoshch' zdes'! Otpravit' zheleznyye lyudi!" One of them barked into a radio clipped to his vest, firing blindly over a crate with an AK. One of the Russians screamed as a bullet ripped into his shin, falling the ground and clutching his bleeding leg. Kobiashvili fired again, forcing the rest of the Russians to duck back under the crates they were huddled behind. The wounded man started to reach for his sidearm, but screamed again when a batarang slashed across his hand, and a steel-toed boot crunched against his nose, sending him into unconsciousness. Batwoman flipped around a crate then, weaving between the huddling mercenary's shots with well-practiced grace. The others were on the rest in an instant, Cyborg blasting one crate to splinters and sending the woman hiding behind it sailing back into the wall, knocking her out instantly, while Starfire's bolts sent another running straight into Beast Boy's swinging bear paw.

"What'd he say?" Beast Boy shouted, morphing into a rat to avoid a short hail of 7.62 rounds.

"Calling for help! Something about 'iron men'!" Batwoman replied, side-stepping one of the bulky Russian's punches, then kicking at his knee. He grunted and fell, drawing a knife from his belt and starting to stab at her stomach, only for the woman's hands to clamp down on his wrist, Then she slammed her head forward. She felt his nose flatten and his blood splatter her lips, and she wiped it away while she watched the man slump back onto the floor. Another mercenary went down screaming, her jaw shattered by Robin's staff, and the Titan looked around sharply for the last one. He spotted the man sprinting for the back of the warehouse, shouting into his radio and firing behind him with a Skorpion SMG. Robin bolted after him, preparing a bola...and stopped when he heard a loud, metallic screech. A section of the wall shifted loose and rose up, the remaining mercenary sliding under the door. Already Robin could see something behind that hidden elevator; There were two pairs of feet, wrapped in thick, gleaming olive drab-painted metal, and as more came into view, he could tell the figures were well over seven feet tall. He'd seen power armor before, and he always hated having to fight people wearing a suit. They were strong; strong enough to take a meta one-on-one, and to swing the largest guns around as if they were pistols, which was exactly what the two armored men were doing as they stepped out of the elevator and leveled a pair of Kord heavy machine guns.

"Umeret, Titanov!" One of them roared before his weapon belched a storm of 12.7mm rounds at the gathered heroes. They all ducked and leaped out of the way to avoid the bullets, save Raven who formed a protective shield around her and Batwoman. The red-headed Bat threw another of her blades at the closest of the armored men, which bounced harmlessly off of that armored shell. The man inside laughed, raising his gun toward her and preparing to fire.

A bright blue blast of energy stopped him half-way through, and the armored giant fell back to the ground senseless. The other was already firing on Cyborg, who still stood there ready to blast the other man. The large teen gritted his teeth as the bullets clanged against his own armor, firing again at the second. This one was quicker though, leaping out of the way of the blast. When his weapon clicked empty, the Russian threw the machine gun aside and charged at Cyborg, wrapping his arms around the Titan's chest and slamming him back into the wall. One, two, three punches to Cyborg's right side while the teen tried to throw his opponent off.

"Guess this is what he meant by 'iron men!'" Batwoman shouted, throwing a batarang at the man attacking Cyborg, and this time the blade sank into a vent in the armored back, sending a short shower of sparks flying and the man inside screaming in pain as his suit jolted and spasmed. Cyborg took that opportunity to throw him off and to the ground, where he set to slamming his fists down into the helm and chestplate. The bat turned in time to see the other armored mercenary barreling forward, sweeping her off her feet with a gauntleted arm. Hitting the wall with a gasp, she tried to get some air back into her lungs while the man sprung a long, serrated blade from his right hand, already slashing away at her. Gritting her teeth as she dodged between the slashes of that steel, Batwoman reached into her belt for another batarang, hurling it up and at the man's helmet. He ducked, chuckling as it sailed past him, readying the blade for another thrust, right up until the batarang swung back around, sinking into the vent in the back. The armored man was stunned for a long moment, sparks flying and a scream pouring through that helmet and well before he could get his wits back, bullets clanged loudly against the chestplate and groin as Kobiashvili emptied his weapon into him. 7.62mm wasn't enough to put an end to the fight, but it gave Raven distraction enough to surround the man with her dark magic. Inky tendrils tore away great chunks of armor, leaving the frame beneath bare. He screamed when something was pulled from his suit's back, and he fell to the ground with a resounding crash, unable to move. Apparently the half-demon had ripped off something vital to the suit, leaving the mercenary trapped like a turtle on its back. A final kick from Cyborg to the helmet left him unconsciousness and trapped under the weight of his own armor.

Across from the scene, the second of the armored mercenaries was fighting off the remaining Titans with little success. Robin would lunge in with his staff to daze the man, Beast Boy in the form of a large raptor slashing at the joints of his armor and Starfire peppering him with star bolts. It was the Tamaranian that ended that fight, sweeping the Russian off of his feet and slamming him up into the rafters. Metal buckled and blood ran down from the man's mouth inside his helmet. When the alien was satisfied that her foe was not a danger anymore, she rather gently shifted to hold him with one arm, floating back down to the ground and throwing him aside with a resounding crash. There was relative silence then, save for the breathing of the gathered heroes. It was Hawkgirl that broke the silence.

"I'm really starting to hate Russians." Batwoman said, pulling her batarang from the unconscious mercenary's armor. "We need to move. They've probably already raised the alarm down there." The Titans all nodded, along with Kobiashvili, and they all turned to the open passageway. In the darkness, there was dimly lit ramp that led further down into the basement, and down below they could hear the muffled blare of an alarm, shouts in Russian and the clatter of boots on metal floors.

"Keep your guard up. They've probably got more of those armored men down there. Not to mention Knyazev." Robin said, his hand poised over his utility belt. "It's only going to get worse from here."

 **TTTTT**

Comrade, we have intruders in the lab." Came the hoarse voice, the Russian carrying an accent that suggested a Balkan native. Terra was half-awake now, but she could make out the words clear enough as she laid restrained against a spotless gurney. They must have been tweaking the tranquilizer dosage again, because she'd started coming too when the men had pulled her out of the tank for whatever fresh hell of a test they had next. "Mikael has confirmed it is the Titans and two others. General Kobiashvili and the new Bat from Gotham."

"Deploy all armored troops to intercept them, seal the doors behind them and maintain heavy guard at each. I want these two prepared for transport now." It was KGBeast, his voice as cold and collected as could be, almost as if he weren't at all concerned about the team of superheroes currently storming his employer's lab. "Keep in communication. I will go with the armored troops myself."

Terra remained motionless as she heard those heavy feet stomping away from the lab, keeping the image of still being drugged into a stupor. When the monster was out of earshot, she started to turn her head, daring only to move a few millimeters at most, lest she alert the lab personnel and guards. Mostly scientists, men and women she recognized from her days living with Dr. Jace in that lab, and some of the Russian mercs KGBeast had brought with him. None of them were looking at her, though, since Brion was awake as well and actively fighting his own restraints. It at least kept the armed men busy while Terra broke off a small, bit of stone from the floor and willing it into a sharp edge, floating it slowly across the room to the gurney. Brion was still kicking up a massive fuss, and he was on the verge of turning his own gurney over, forcing the guards to physically hold him down. They didn't notice the rock working its way through the heavy leather strap holding Terra's arms down, and by the time that one of them turned to see her unfastening the last holding down her feet, it was too late to stop her.

He shouted, pointing at her with a gloved hand while his other tried to free a taser from his belt. A calloused foot crushed into his cheek before he could raise his weapon, the blonde girl falling into a fighting stance while her first opponent slammed against Brion's gurney, sending it and the other two men sprawling. She might not have had her full power then, but she could still fight, Robin had made sure of that. She was on the larger of the Russians in an instant, diving forward with one clenched fist swinging out at his jaw and catching him as he started to stand again. The third had managed to get a short baton out, swinging at her from a half-crouch, his footing still unsure. She managed to duck under the attack and kicked out at his chest, putting him on his back.

"My friends are here, they're fighting Beast's guys up top." Terra said as she started to work on Brion's restraints, knowing the mercenaries would be back up in a few moments. "We have to help them." To his credit, he only nodded, immediately reaching down to undo the straps over his legs while Terra turned back to the mercs. They were back up and on their feet now, and now Terra didn't have surprise on her side. The Titan weaved and blocked quick, precise jabs and heavy punches and kicks, fully aware that two men easily three times her size could quickly turn the tables on her in this fight, at least until Brion free. She hissed when one of those punches caught her in the gut, sending her staggering back several feet, and she barely dodged the following jab at her face. The brute was surprisingly quick, easily batting aside her punches now that the element of surprise was past, and his counters came just as quick. Between he and his friend, the Titan could barely keep up, and took more than a few blows that felt like mule kicks. She gritted her teeth, however, and kept fighting, diving at the smaller of the two and punching at his kidney. It was going well for a few seconds, right up until she was lifted bodily off the ground and slammed down onto the ground and pinned over the merc's thick forearm. She struggled and kicked up against him, but kept that iron grip, snarling down at her. That snarl was broken, however, when an IV stand came crashing around into his neck, and the man was sent senseless to the ground. Terra gasped, rolling back onto her feet in time to see Brion wrestling for the stand against the other Russian, and on the losing side. A well-placed kick to the back of the big man's knee evened the odds, however, and Brion followed his sister's attack with a swing of the stand at his head. He turned to his sister, breath heavily.

"Thank you. Your friends taught you well." He said with obvious pride in the other. She smiled back, cheeks flushing just a little, not the least because they were both in only the most bare of clothing right then.

"Robin made sure of that. He's taught me a lot about fighting." She punctuated the sentence with a sharp kick to a rising merc's jaw, putting him back down on the ground where he belonged. Despite the danger of their present circumstance, she couldn't hold it back then. She had to ask now.

"Earlier, I swear I heard dad talking to The Beast. Was...was it really him?" Her voice wavered just a bit, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer she dread. The look on Brion's face told her what she feared. "How could he do this to all those people at the ball, to us?"

"I don't know, Tara. Maybe mother manipulated him; maybe he's gotten too obsessed with making Markovia powerful again. It doesn't matter, though. We have to stop this." Then, without another word the younger prince of Markovia turned to the tanks they had been floating in, been experimented on and further degraded in. Apparently his power came back to him faster, because he tore a chunk of rock from the ground, hands and eyes burning gold as the slab crashed through the machinery, scientists fleeing with cries of terror on their lips. When everything that had ever been used on them was smashed beyond repair, sparking and hissing horribly, he let the rock fall, and he turned back to his sister, eyes still flared in that golden light. "Come on, we have to go help your friends. And stop our father."

"How much longer to get through that door?" Robin asked for the second time in as many minutes, ducking under the swinging blade of another of the power armored mercenaries, the other Titans tied up battling another two along with their allies.

"Longer if you keep asking!" Cyborg shouted, totally focused on unlocking the massive promethium door while fighting raged around him. Batwoman and Starfire were barely keeping up with their foe, his wrist-blades flashing before them and bullets whizzing past them, while Beast Boy and Raven held down another with the general. "Might as well be hacking into the CIA's mainframe! Kinda difficult too when I've got a bunch of assholes in power armor trying to kill us while I'm at it!"

"Doing our best!" Batwoman shouted, gritting her teeth as she ducked under a swipe of that blade again, returning the favor with a sharp kick at one of the lightly-armored joints at her foe's knee. The feminine grunt from behind the helmet told her that she'd at least gotten some result. Starfire, obviously, had better luck when she blasted the woman point-blank, sending her off her feet and into the wall, where the Tamaranian laid into her with blow after blow. Free to move again, the black-clad heroine turned and readied a batarang, looking for a target. The closest had his back to her, wrestling with a green grizzly bear, and another was being pinned to the ground by a massive bird's talon while Kobiashvili pumped rounds into the vulnerable power supply. She picked her target as quickly as she could, hurling her weapon at the man fighting Beast Boy, and in an instant the sparks rained from the power supply, and the man inside the suit screamed as he was electrocuted inside. He fell twitching to the ground, whimpering and writhing inside his own armor as he started to go unconscious, leaving Beast Boy standing with a snarl over bared teeth before he moved on to the last of the mercs, slashing at the armored back with rending claws.

"I think I got it! I got it!" Cyborg said with a laugh, and shortly after the promethium doors slid open with a deep, mechanical thump. The joy was sucked out of him when he saw what was waiting for them behind the door. Two more of the power armored guards stood with heavy machine guns in hand, five of their unarmored friends in cover behind them. And in the middle of them all was the towering, masked visage of the KGBeast himself, his gun-arm aimed squarely at Cyborg.

"Oh come on." Was all he could said before the bullets started flying, and the giant super soldier surged forward. One massive, hairy arm swept Robin up off his feet, slamming him down onto his back with crushing force. The Titan leader gasped as the air shot out from his lungs, and he barely managed to roll out of the gun's path as KGBeast opened up where his head had been. He tried bringing his staff around for a heavy swing, but his weapon stopped in the man's hand and yanked it out of Robin's grasp as if it were made of paper. A savage backhand struck him so hard he swore his jaw was splintered, though he didn't have the time to dwell on that as KGBeast rained blows down on the stunned Titan. He saw in flashes the others dodging bullets and the attacks of the armored mercs, these two apparently the best of the bunch, weaving and bobbing between attacks and responding with their own which battered his teammates. From the corner of his eye he saw Kobiashvili fall with an agonized roar, blood trickling between his clenched fingers from a ragged hole in his gut. He'd been shot.

"You're rusty, boy." KGBeast taunted, catching a gloved fist and slamming his head forward into Robin's face. "You've been away from your father for too long. I'll be sure to send the pieces back to him when we're done here. Motivate him to train the next Robin harder."

"Go to hell!" Robin snarled back, rolling aside and readying a birdarang and hurling it at the giant. This one struck true, slicing the Beast's right thigh. He wasn't even slowed, though, seemingly heedless of the blood running down his leg as he sprinted forward and tackled the teenager, sweeping him up off his feet and slamming him up against the wall. True to form, the Beast was all knees and elbows, fighting like an animal starved and let loose from a cage.

And then he was free, KGBeast himself thrown down by a flash of red and purple, green fire trailing after it. Starfire was growling swears so vicious that Robin initially had trouble believing it was the same girl. The Beast rose up only to be knocked back by starbolts against his chest, and then the alien was on him, punches and kicks slamming into the hardened muscle. His own curses rose up, the Russian deep and guttural as he snapped his hand closed around a thrusting arm, and the gun swung up to smash into the Tamaranian's gut. He threw her as hard as he could back toward Robin, firing a short burst of 7.62mm rounds at the alien as she tumbled on the ground, earning a scream from the girl as the bullets slammed into her hardened skin like mule kicks.

"Do you understand who you are facing, girl?" He snarled, booting her another several feet across the floor. "I am Anatoli Knyazev. I am the man that gave all Mother Russia's enemies nightmares. I am the man Batman could not best in a fight. I am The Beast."

"You're just another monster, and we beat monsters all the time!"

Everyone turned then to face the familiar voice, and now noticed that the gunfire had fallen silent where the normal mercenaries had been. It was Terra, her eyes burning gold and two massive slabs of rock hurtling toward the armored mercs. Both were crushed into the wall, leaving the Titans they had previously been tossing about like rag dolls looking amazed at their breathing room; all but Beast Boy, who looked elated to see the blonde geomancer free again. Behind her, Brion was mopping up the last of the regular guards, letting his sister turn on KGBeast. The super soldier, for his part, faced her with a cold gaze that could be felt even under the mask.

"Well now, princess, you are difficult to keep contained. I can see why your father needed my talents to secure you. I'll have to remember to include this in my fee." He leveled his gun arm again, aimed at her center mass, the same rattle of rounds changing from live ammo to rubber bullets. Terra was ready this time, however, and she flung one of the slabs she'd thrown back up in front of her, shielding her from the gunfire as she advanced. When she was within twenty feet, she broke off two large chunks from the rock and willed them to envelop her fists like boxing gloves. The rock shot forward, forcing KGBeast to roll out of the way to avoid it, only to have his face connect solidly with one of those stone gauntlets, and the other smashing into his ribs. Growling, the super soldier started to swing his own meaty fist around, only to feel dagger-like teeth sink into his arm, stopping him short of Terra's cheek. Beast Boy snarled as he bit harder into his foe's arm, the utharaptor pulling him back while Terra continued to pound at his torso like a jackhammer. Brion was on KGBeast's back in an instant as well, a rock club smashing into the back of the giant's knee and sending him down to one leg. Then, with a cry that echoed through the hall Terra clasped her hands together and brought them around into KGBeast's cheek, hitting the man so hard that the cybernetic implant in his left eye socket came loose, bouncing across the ground before rolling to a stop. He wavered there for a long moment, and then with a low groan slumped forward with a massive thud against the metallic floor.

All of the Titans stood panting for a long moment, save Starfire who made her way to the grievously wounded Kobiashvili. Beast Boy, returned to his normal form, pulled Terra in for a tight hug, which she was all too happy to return.

"Are you alright, Terra? Did they hurt you?" He asked, pulling back enough look down at his girlfriend. She nodded shortly.

"They poked and prodded me and Brion, tried to use us to get samples for more super soldiers. I'm fine, though." Then she noticed the wounded Kobiashvili, and she and Brion rushed to his side with the others close behind them. She looked to Starfire gravely. "How bad is it?"

"He has been shot in the stomach. He must get to a hospital now, or he will die." The alien girl said, her voice uncharacteristically grim. She knelt down carefully to pick the big man up almost effortlessly, careful not to move him too much. Robin could only nod toward the Tamaranian as she carried the man off.

"We'd better get moving. I'm betting Dr. Jace has her own way out of here. Wouldn't want to her to get away with this, now would we?" Batwoman said with a frown, pointing down the hall.

"It's not just her." Brion said lowly, facing down the hall as well with his face set in a dark mask of anger. "It's my parents, too. They set this up." There was a long pause, all others but he and Terra stunned by that revelation.

"Well then, even more reason to get moving. Just hope the political shitstorm blows over quick..." Batwoman sighed, already starting down the hall, and the Titans followed after her.

 **TTTTT**

"Everything you can carry! We must salvage something from this!" Katrina Markov screeched, the remaining scientists scrambling to grab whatever files or samples they could carry while their domineering queen raged. Viktor only stood silently, apparently staring off into space as chaos rushed around him. It only added to the queen's rage seeing him there, useless and broken. "Everything we had planned for, everything we wished for Markovia is ruined!"

"Everything _you_ wanted for Markovia." He said back, still not looking at his wife, only adding to her fury. "I have only ever wanted peace for our people. You insisted on these soldiers. Using our children to create them."

She slapped him firmly across the cheek at that, her teeth gritting in outrage.

"Do NOT call that girl my child. She is _your_ bastard, and instead of having her do her duty to the Fatherland, you sent her away here. You cost us our chance to restore our dignity!." For a long moment, Viktor continued to stare off, totally still before he finally turned to face his wife.

"No. It would have made us like the Kasnians and the Russians. Sacrificing our children to give our country a new weapon…there is no honor, no dignity in that. I can see that now."

King Vitkor of Makrovia didn't feel the gunshot at first, only seeing the flash of steel as Katrina drew her tokarev from her dress, and the bang of a round firing in the enclosed space. He felt the warm, thick fluid running down his chest, staining his jacket dark red, and his knees gave out under him. But…it wasn't Katrina that had fired the shot. Doctor Jace scowled as she looked down at the king, and then, turning to Katrina, she turned her own pistol on the other woman. She fired once before the queen could react, and an arch of blood flew through the air as Katrina Markov died.

"I thought that bitch would never shut up." She looked over to Viktor as he wheezed blood, a smirk tugging at her lips as she leveled the gun at his face. "Don't give me that hurt expression, your majesty. You know I have bills to pay. Knyazev and I had such a lovely arrangement with the South Kasnians too. Shame we'll have to settle for selling the research notes."

"It's over, Jace. You can't win here." The speaker was a redheaded woman in black spandex, red gloves and boots, as well as a tall mask that looked akin to bat ears. The Titans were behind her, as well as her own son. Brion and Terra stood the closest to her beside the woman in black, and when they saw their father on the ground, their faces went pale as snow.

"Father!" They both screamed, starting toward the dying man without heed.

"Away! Stay away from me, all of you!" Jace shouted, backpedaling from the group, her hand dipping into her lab coat and coming up with a small, silver tube. She thumbed the top open, revealing the prominent, red button they had seen on so many similar devices. "If you come anywhere near me I will kill Brion and Tara. Do you honestly think I would not have some protection from them? The poison is in their blood. I need only give the nanobots the order to release it."

The siblings stopped in their tracks, looking at the woman that had given them their powers in mixed horror and anger. Her eyes were cold, fixed on Terra as she slowly backed away. Her thumb remained as directly next to the button, threatening to activate that killswitch at the slightest provocation.

"You know, Tara, you had such potential. We could have made a fortune together. All of Europe would be begging to hire you, to make their nation the strongest on the continent. We could have lived like the royalty you were denied. Such a waste."

Lost in that rant, she didn't notice Viktor surge upward with one last feat of strength, tackling her to the ground and sending the trigger rolling away where Cyborg snatched it up. Robin and Batwoman were on the Jace in an instant, pinning her down and snapping cuffs over her wrists as she struggled. Brion and Terra were meanwhile at their father's side, the old man in his son's arms as he bled and wheezed.

"Brion...Tara...I am sorry. I am sorry for all the wrongs I have done to you." He croaked out in Markovian, his breathing growing weaker by the second.

"Father..." Brion said, his voice trembling as he looked down at the man dying in his grasp. "Please, just hold on. We'll get you to help. Just..." The king silenced his son with a weak squeeze of his shoulder, his hand shaking with the effort.

"You are the man I should have been, my son. Help Gregor...help him lead our people." Then, slowly he tried to turn his head to face his daughter, but not quite able, weak as he was. "I am proud of you Tara. You have grown into such a strong, brave woman. I love you both so very much."

Neither of the siblings could hold back the tears as their father died between them.

"I love you too, father." Terra whispered in their mother tongue, squeezing the man's hand before he drew his last breath

 **TTTTT**

"Tara, Brion, it's good to see you both safe." Gregor Markov, as tall and broad as his father had been, said to the two, clasping both in a warm embrace, particularly Terra, whom, while he had never been as close to as Brion, had always tried to make feel welcome. "When I heard the news I arranged a flight as soon as I could. Is cousin Artyom well?"

"He's just been discharged. They say he'll make a full recovery, but he's going to be off-duty for a while." Terra answered, smiling faintly up at her oldest brother, who easily dwarfed here as they stood outside of Titans Tower. The others were all off on patrol, figuring they could spare their friend the time to say her goodbyes to her brothers. It had been a bit harder to convince Beast Boy, but she promised to fill him in when he got back, and considering the unpleasantness she would need to attend to...well, he would have ample opportunity be the supportive boyfriend later. For now, she just needed to keep it within family.

"Excellent, he's always been a good man. I don't know if I could bury our parents and our cousin at one time." Gregor said, his smile falling as his mind drifted to that topic. "The funeral will be held in the capital within the week. I trust you will attend?" Terra nodded.

"Of course. He should have all of his children there." Both of her bothers looked approvingly at that, the older clasping her shoulder.

"I wish it were under better circumstances, but it will be good to have you back home, if only for a short while. You will always be welcome of course, and your friends too. Heh, I'm eager to meet the man on my baby sister's arm." They all laughed at that, Terra blushing faintly as she thought of Beast Boy in a royal palace. That would certainly be an adjustment for him, but she had faith.

"What's to happen with Jace?" Brion asked, looking more than a little disgusted at the thought of the woman. Gregor frowned as well.

"The Americans can have her. She broke the law on their land, so she can deal with their justice." There was a pause, none of the siblings eager to dwell on their father. "I won't try to sugarcoat the truth when I address the people. I would serve them poorly if I didn't include the bad with the good. I will let history decide what to think of him."

"It's what he would want." Brion added. The conflict on how to feel about the old man was still written clearly on his face. He had been a good man most of his life, but he had made a terrible decision with their lives, even if he had saved them at the end. The wound was still fresh, and it would take time to heal. Thankfully, time was something they had plenty of.

"Will you stay long?" Terra asked curiously of the older brother. Gregor shrugged.

"Not very. I can't be away from home too long after this. Funeral, coronation, the usual arrangements and ceremony."

"Would you at least stay long enough to meet my friends, maybe for dinner? You did say you wanted to meet my boyfriend." She let the smile return now, trying to forget, if briefly, the tragedy that had preceded, and focus on something happy. Gregor just beamed in response, lifting his baby sister up in a fierce bearhug.

"Of course I can make the time for that. I'm sure you have all sorts of stories to tell, too. Brion and I would be glad to hear them."

 **TTTTT**

 **Whew. Well this looks so much better now. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty embarrassed with how this looked after a while, so it's a relief to get this edited down. Hopefully y'all like this new version better too. Reviews are always welcome, folks! It's how I get better at this!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Whew. Finally, I've gotten around to this, and it feels great. I apologize for the long silence on my end, just been swamped with RL. Finishing up my degree finally got a job, moving, and the whole spiel. I'm just glad to have the time to have written this chapter down at last. I've got a good idea of where I want the Season 3 arc to go, and I've even got some ideas down for Season 4 when that glorious time comes. But I have stalled enough, time for the show to roll!**

 **As usual, I own dick aside from my few OCs.**

 **Episode 3: Deception**

Nick Sharpes hated the HIVE Academy. He hated the lousy pay, he hated the ridiculous and borderline useless uniform he was forced to wear, he hated the teachers and the way they looked down on him, and he hated the fact that he was subservient to teenagers. Most of all, he hated the fact that he had no choice in the matter. It wasn't like his reputation was in any place to get any job in his trade after that shitshow four months ago with the Titans. Ever since Slade's big, master plan had gone tits up and the rest of the crew had gotten long sentences in Stryker's or Blackgate, he'd been on his own with the brand of a loser that gotten his ass kicked by the frigging sidekick squad. His pointing out that some real badasses had been beaten by that same team didn't help.

Now he was here, playing look out for a bunch of teenage punks while they cleaned out the Bank of Arcadia for a school project. He felt like a goddamn chaperone on a junior high field trip, and it made his blood boil when he compared it to his glory days, when he commanded respect as some of the best muscle in Gotham. He had women that begged to be on his arm for a night, he had friends in the crews of Thorne, Falcone and Barlowe. He had authority. Now he had to take out a loan for a bucket to piss in.

The other HIVE goons were all amused by the old gangster's annoyance, too caught up in working for a 'prestigious' employer to see how screwed they were. He just shook his head in disgust and turned to keep his gaze on the door, finger close to the trigger of his rifle. He was done with this shit. If this was where a career as a triggerman led, then maybe he needed a new trade.

"Hey, we could use a hand in here!" One of the kids, a big, fat brute dressed like a wannabe biker bellowed from the vault, where he was trying to haul his share of the gold. Sharpes groaned and looked over to the others, who just shrugged back at him. Of course those little assholes would make the old man do the work. Grumbling, he shouldered his rifle and started back toward the vault to help his charges with their frigging homework, right before the boomerangs flashed toward the other goons' hands. They both screamed as they dropped their rifles, clutching their hands and leaving themselves wide open for the pair of baseball-sized stones smashing into their chests, denting their armor and knocking them senseless.

"How about a foot?" Came that all-too familiar, booming voice of the robot Titan as he zoomed past Sharpes and booted the fat kid in the chest hard enough to put him on his back, catching all the others off guard. Sharpes bolted to the wall, pressing himself as flat as he could as the other Titans swarmed into the vault. The fighting started almost immediately, superpowered teenagers throwing bolts of energy, stones, slashing with claws and throwing punches that would have crippled normal men, the noise growing deafening in the confines of their battleground. He could see the orange alien grappling with that crazy hick girl with the super strength, their feet digging divots into the ground as they tried to force the other down, while opposite them the blonde bitch Slade had wanted so bad was swinging a slab of rock like a baseball bat at the back of the biker's knee, sending him to one leg while the robot charged up that canon of his, ready to blast the kid into next week. Then the blonde was sent sprawling when the goth-looking chick was sent hurtling toward her by a swarm of Billy's clones, sending both into a tangle of limbs and giving the biker the chance to regain his footing and send the robot flying with a vicious uppercut to the stomach, though he was back up only a moment later.

"Four raids in one week? What're these clowns up to?" Cyborg grated, firing his canon at the biker as he charged at the Titan, only to see his foe leap up with a speed that was unbelievable for a kid his size, a gloved hand catching him squarely in the cheek.

"Jus' doin' out homework, Tin Man!" The biker snarled, grabbing Cyborg by the throat and crotch and hurling him into Beast Boy and Robin as they were distracted fighting against another teenager draped in rather normal clothes, but whose gray skin glowed with neon purple runes, Starfire bound by ringlets of the arcane energy. The magic kid barely managed to dodge the carts of full of money as Raven threw them at him hard enough to take an elephant off its feet, and he snarled up at her as he raised his hands toward her and Terra. Lassos of that magic energy snapped around their legs as he swung his hands together, and the two teenage girls crashed into each other, knocking both senseless.

"Get the haul and go! Leave the mooks!" Shouted the lone female in the bunch, a butch girl that Sharpes was pretty sure was the biker's sister or girlfriend, or both considering they were about as Okie hick as he'd ever seen. Sharpes didn't need to hear that twice. Bolting into the vault while those capes were still dazed, the old crook snatched up as many stacks of hundreds as he could care, almost stumbling over his own feet as he tried to book it after the HIVE kids as they were fleeing, true to their word abandoning the poor schmucks that had gotten their asses kicked at the start. He was catching up, though, because he was a goddamn professional, he'd pulled scores like this a hundred times, he'd gotten away from the best the law. The Bat, Robin, Nightwing, Black Canary, and now the Titans, he'd gotten away from them all and managed to tell tale. He'd…

He came tumbling down less than five feet away from the door in a great, grunting heap as he felt something wrapping around his legs, and he hit the ground hard enough to shatter the glass of his helmet's faceplate, the stacks of hundreds spilling out of his grasp and onto the floor. He could see the last of the HIVE kids piling into the van, speeding off before the doors were even shut and was out of sight in an instant. So close. He'd been so close…

 **TTTTT**

Three hours later Sharpes was in an interview room. In contrast to the one in Gotham he'd seen when he was just a kid, this one was almost like a damn hospital room, white and fancy as it was. If it weren't for the sole furniture being a long, white table and a pair of chairs, he could have believed that he was at Jump City General. That, and the cameras watching him at every angle.

The cops had done their usual bit, and he'd kept his mouth shut aside from demanding to speak to his lawyer, but that was over an hour and a half ago. Henry should have been here a long time ago (his office was only four blocks from the police station after all), and he should have been put back in a cell by now. Something was up, and Sharpes was sorely itching to have his .45 back in his hand.

He knew that HIVE had contacts in the department, and weren't shy about using them to shut up witnesses or rats. The idea crossed the old gangster's mind that they might consider a washed-up loser like him a threat, a walking plea bargain ready to give up all he knew for the chance of not dying of old age in prison. Would they be so blatant as to off him in the interview room, though? The thoughts were cut short when he heard the door opening, his hands clenching as he looked up to see who was entering. He wasn't too surprised to see the fucking Boy Wonder himself stepping through that door, looking cool as you like. He glared at the kid.

"Evening, Sharpes. Been a while, hasn't it? I've been walking to have a talk with you since that night you shot Detective Montoya and what you helped do to Beast Boy." His tone was flat, a lot less…angry than he'd expected, especially considering their colorful history. "From Falcone to King Barlowe to Slade, now HIVE. You really need to pick better employers."

"Kiss my ass, kid. I already told the black an' whites I ain't sayin' dick 'til I see my lawyer." He shot back automatically, trying to look more confident than he felt as he leaned back in his chair, the chains of his cuffs jingling with the movement.

"Good thing I don't need you to say anything, then." Robin said, stepping toward the table and taking the seat across from Sharpes. They stared at each other for a long moment, neither saying a word for several seconds that dragged on into what seemed like minutes. Finally, Robin spoke.

"You've got a lot to answer for, Sharpes. You've hurt two of my friends now and killed God knows how many people before that. I don't know how a guy like you escaped justice for as long as you have, but your luck's run out. You're going to pay for all you've done. The GCPD is already demanding your extradition."

"An' here I thought tauntin' your enemies was bad form for you hero types. Ain't that gettin' a lil' close to some'a them deadly sins?" Sharpes spat. "You came all this way down here to jus' to tell me what a piece'a shit I am? Jesus, that's jus' petty."

"No. I need something from you." Robin said suddenly, and then suddenly reached forward and jabbed two fingers at the HIVE insignia on his chestplate. "HIVE. We're going after them. You're going to help us."

Sharpes couldn't help it. He laughed in Robin's face, a mocking, hyena-like sound that could surely be heard throughout the station.

"What part of 'I ain't sayin' dick 'til I see my l see my lawyer' don't you quite get?"

"Like I said, I don't need you to say anything. I just need you to help our plant on the inside. I've got a deal with the DA. Every week you spend on this will knock six months off your sentence when you're returned to police custody. You might not die in Blackgate after all." Robin said firmly, his narrowed eyes fixed on the gangster. Sharpes's lips pulled up into an amused smirk.

"Yeah? An' what's to stop me from lettin' my bosses know about this lil' mole of yours? Would get me a fat-ass bonus on my paycheck. Maybe even a promotion. Or, shit, just takin' off and holdin' up back in Gotham where I got friends?" It was Robin's turn to smirk.

"A leaked statement from the JCPD saying that you've expressed your desire to fully cooperate in the ongoing investigations into the HIVE Academy in exchange for a reduced sentence."

Sharpes' eyes grew wide. Not only was that a threat, that was one hell of a threat.

"Bullshit. I never said anythin'. The cops got nothin', and you got nothin'."

"Do you honestly think HIVE will take the chance?" Robin said, leaning in to face the man squarely in the eyes. There was another long, glowering pause.

"You little shit. Fine, what am I gonna do?" He spat the words out like venom, his hands balled so tightly together that he could have turned coal to diamonds. Robin merely nodded.

"Once you're back among HIVE, you're going to help our insider to blend in, bypass security, anything you can do to make his job easier."

"Gee, it's as simple as that, kiddo? You thought up how you're gonna get me outta here? Just gonna waltz out to the cops and say 'Hey, can I borrow this guy to infiltrate the supervillain school? And please, anyone on the take waste that poor sucker before he leaves the buildin' and leave me with a dead man in one hand and my schlong in the other?'"

"I've got a plan. Just hold tight." With that, Robin stood and started out the room. Sharpes blinked in bewilderment as he watched the kid leave, gawking as was abandoned again. Finally he threw his cuffed hands up, shaking his head in disgust as he leaned back against his chair again, cursing his luck. Goddamn superheroes. Thought they could trample all over a guy's rights when it suited them.

Ten minutes past before he heard another noise, one that sent a cold shiver up his spine and set his eyes wide again as it filled his ears. Laser fire, and then another and another. Men and women were shouting outside, boots were clattering on the hallway as they rushed to respond to something, and soon enough an alarm claxon joined the din. Sharpes felt a thousand thoughts racing through his head. Was HIVE here to kill him on the off chance he would talk? Was some dumbass kid trying to bust his friend out of jail? Was Slade back in town, and looking to do some housekeeping?

He found his answer a moment later when an armored police officer came crashing through the window into the interview room, groaning as he tried to rise. There was a tall, broad figure following after, vaguely…familiar somehow, though he was sure he'd never seen this guy in his entire life. The man looked to be made of rock, for God's sake.

"Stay down, man." The figure said, almost gently brushing the cop aside with his foot, the officer too terrified to argue as he made his way over to Sharpes. The old crook looked up at the other.

"Who the hell are you?" Was all he could manage to say.

"Stone. You're welcome, by the way." He said as he almost absently broke the chains holding Sharpes bound, grabbing the man by the front of his chestplate with one hand and winding up the other to slam into the wall. It crumbled easily under the guy's blow, and within moments there was a hole large enough for them both to step through, back out into Jump City.

 **TTTTT**

Cyborg had to admit, for as thuggish and stupid as Sharpes looked, the man knew his away around the place. Though he'd bitched all along the way, he'd done as he was asked and filled the Titan in on everything he needed to know about this part of the mission. Slipping his forged ID file into their database was easy enough; Stone, real name unknown, aged 17, a leftover from one of Hugo Strange's experiments. The basic security was also a snap to get through with the right codes, and he was in and amongst the student body in no time. He'd wondered just how Sharpes managed to pick up this stuff, but then he guessed that the HIVE instructors, arrogant and villain-y as they were thought little enough of the man that they weren't worried about letting those little details slip in his presence. Their mistake.

There were more students here than he had ever imagined; wannabe villains and outcasts of all shapes and sizes, a few he recognized and some he had no idea of. In the cafeteria alone he counted at least a hundred, and more were filling in as he made his way toward the closest empty seat he could find. There were familiar faces there, and in fact he'd recently punched at least two of them less than 48 hours ago.

The Haight Twins were a pair of runways from Oklahoma who'd been using some recently awakened meta genes to make a living ripping apart bank vaults with that super strength of theirs. Braxton Haight was a big guy from his head to his feet; big bald head, big shoulders, big chest, big gut, arms like tree limbs and legs like trunks. He was favoring a biker jacket and camos tucked into big, steel-toed boots over the costumes most others here seemed to be going for. Cheyenne Haight was almost as tall as her brother, and would have been able to look Cyborg in the eye if they'd ever been in a situation to do so without immediately trying to break each other's faces. Blonde with short hair, muscular, and cute in a butch sort of way, he thought. Like her brother she didn't bother with any kind of costume, sticking to a cheap white tank top, green plaid shirt with the sleeves long since either worn or cut off, ratty jeans and well-worn boots. They sure played up the redneck part in their looks.

Billy Numerous hadn't changed much since he'd been with the HIVE Five, though he seemed to have put on some muscle since his stint in Blackgate. He figured that Billy and the Haights got along famously, Southerners and all. That left the fourth member of that little pack, probably the most dangerous of them all. Rune was small, wiry, not much bigger than BB, but only an idiot judged by size in this business. His gray skin was covered in purple runes that Cyborg wanted to guess were Slavic, and from what he'd heard, they were a family recipe that had been passed down for generations, coming all the way from an encounter with Baba Yaga herself. What he'd seen of this guy, he could believe that. They were all looking at him with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. He stared right back at them, giving them a look that dared them to say something as he sat down, right beside Cheyenne. Braxton was the first to speak.

"You got balls, boy. New meat don't sit with the big dogs in this school unless they got sum'n to prove." He drawled, tearing off an enormous chunk of sloppy joe, chewing slowly before he spoke again. "Well?"

"Maybe he thinks he's gonna start off his schoolin' by takin' one of us out." Billy chimed in beside the other teen, grinning wickedly as he eyed the stranger. "Be right hilarious to see him give that a shot."

"That true?" Braxton said with a smirk, setting his food down and folding his arms in front of him, Cheyenne smirking right along as she turned to look Cyborg up and down. He caught a glint in the girl's eye, one he hadn't seen since he was still…normal. The look that said she liked what she was seeing. He'd been a star athlete, strong, good-looking, and smart. The kind of guy that the girls swooned over back in Detroit. He couldn't remember the last time a girl had look at him like that. Now, though, he looked like his old self, and it seemed that things were about the same in Jump City, even the underground of it. Cyborg just flashed a faint smirk of his own back, first at Cheyenne, then over at Billy and Braxton.

"Name's Stone. Might wanna mark it done, you'll be hearing it a lot." He saw Rune rolling his eyes at that, muttering something lowly in Russian. Braxton and Billy got a good laugh out of that reply.

"We got ourselves a badass here! Well hell, I'mma jus' have to see if he can back up that talk." The hulking biker stood up to his full height then, looming over the sitting Cyborg, several other students at other tables turning to see how the little drama was going to turn out. Cyborg stood up to meet that gaze, knowing that he was expected to make a show of force here. These were bad guys, after all, and with them might did make right a lot of the time.

"Ready when you are, fat boy." The crowd was gathering around them now, looking right on the verge of starting up that familiar high school chant of "Fight, fight, fight!"

"Alright, children, that's enough for the moment. You'll have plenty of opportunities to test each other in combat practice." Came an older, firm voice from across the room. Everyone, save Cyborg, shot straight up to attention at the man speaking, and he cursed as he followed suit, looking more than a little awkward. The speaker was a tall man with skin tanned by long time spent outdoors, a mop of sand colored hair combed back professionally. His bomber jacket was worn but added to the commanding presence that radiated from him. For a moment, Cyborg couldn't place the man's face, though he was certain he'd seen it before. Where, though?

It was only when the man was marching straight toward him that he remembered. He hadn't recognized that face because, more often than not, only half of it was still attached to that gleaming frame beneath in the news reels, lit up with the green glow of the kryptonite heart that powered his body. A chill went down the Titan's back.

"You know who I am, lad?" He asked, stopping in front of Cyborg and looking the teenager squarely in the eye. He could do little but nod.

"Yes sir, Mr. Corben. You're…you're a legend. How could I not know you?" There was a long, dreadful pause, the Titan standing as straight as he could.

"Who are you?"

"Stone, sir. I'm…new here."

"Yet already you're already proving to be a go-getter. Just enrolled and you've already decided to rescue one of our own for extra credit? Operative Sharpes has been singing your praise since his return."

"I just wanted to make a good impression, sir. To prove that I'm here for the HIVE, not just for my own glory. " That's right. Play the kiss-ass, work the ego. Corben nodded slowly, his lips tugged up slightly.

"Enthusiasm is good, lad, but don't let it cloud your judgement. Skilled as an enforcer Sharpes might be, he is only a grunt. We have our ways of dealing with the operatives we lose. Let our usual methods take care of the matter in the future. Am I understood, Mr. Stone?"

"Crystal clear, Mr. Corben." The teacher nodded shortly at that, satisfied with the student's answer. Inwardly, Cyborg breathed in a sigh of relief. Oh man, that could have gone bad so quickly, but it looked like he had managed to avoid a disaster. He watched as Corben turned to face the rest of the student body.

"That goes for the rest of you, too. Temper your ambition with caution and you'll go far in our world. I don't need to tell you how many of our students have failed to learn that lesson. Now then, all of you, report to the arena for combat drills. I want to see what our new recruits can do." He turned to face Cyborg then. "You'll be working with our dear First Team for this drill, I think. I can see you've already made some…friends among them." He gestured over toward the Haights, Billy and Rune, who saluted quickly. He cast one last look over at Cyborg then, his expression _almost_ fatherly.

"Oh, and please…call me Metallo."

 **TTTTT**

Combat practice turned out to be similar to the training regimens he'd set up at the Titans' obstacle course, though it was markedly more dangerous. On the Titans' course, the weaponry was set to half-power at most; enough to sting and get a point across, but which never left anything permanent. Down here, though, it seemed that HIVE believed that pain was a great motivator. The last of the first team to go through was being tossed around by the hulking drones right now, and all of the instructors were looking in disgust at how quickly they'd fallen. There was Metallo, of course, but there were two others standing with him. A tall Asian woman with very short hair in black and red samurai armor, he was pretty sure they called her Tsukuri in the papers, and a guy whom he'd vaguely remembered seeing in the news. Tall, athletic, jawline dark with stubble, wearing a green and black spandex suit with ammo belts, goggles and an American flag bandana wrapped around his head as a do-rag. Gunhawk, he though this guy was called.

"For God sake…get 'em outta there!" Gunhawk waved a hand toward the drones, which ceased their attack immediately while HIVE soldiers scrambled out to carry off the beaten team. He turned sharply toward the rest of the assembled students. "First Team, up and at 'em! You too, Stone!"

Cyborg didn't need to be told twice. Fists slammed together and with a flash of light that traveled up from his feet to the top of his head, the teenager seemed to change from flesh and bone to solid rock. There were more than a few ooo's and ahh's at that transformation, though none of the First Team seemed to pay it much mind. They were all leaping down into the arena, Rune in the lead as the turrets began to spring out of the walls.

"Precision fighting box," Rune droned, his tone flat. "Left and right."

"Wait – I don't know that one!" Cyborg shouted, a little dumbstruck by the suddenness of it all.

"With me on the left!" Braxton Haight shouted, running far faster than his bulk would suggest. "If you can keep up that is!" He was already bull-rushing one of the drones, throwing the machine off its feet and quickly lifting it over his head to hurl at the turrets firing on them. Shaking his head, Cyborg lept in to join him, landing on another drone as it was preparing to fire on Cheyenne and Billy. With gritted teeth he pulled and ripped the drone's arm off, lasers still firing into the wall. He turned that arm around in his grasp, tugging on the loose wires to fire that cannon at the turrets while the others worked on their own ends of the arena. Ahead Rune was carving up drones with bright purple slashes of arcane energy while to the left Cheyenne tore a turret from its hinges, and Billy and a half dozen clones swarmed another of the lumbering robots.

It was all going well until the electrified whips came slashing out of the walls and floor. Cyborg, with his sensors picking up the surge in activity, managed to avoid them, but the rest of the team wasn't so lucky. They were all taken by surprise, and Braxon was the only one still standing while the rest were forced to their knees with pain. More drones were piling into the room from slots in the walls, marching toward the downed teens, and two flanking the wounded Braxton. Gritting his teeth, the Titan bolted forward, barely dodging a five foot long pike that shot out from the wall as he eyed the drones coming for the Haight brother. The canon he'd been using was useless now, so he settled for breaking off the pike and hurling it as a javelin toward the nearer of the two robots. It hit with a shower of sparks to his satisfaction, and he was on the second in a matter of moments. Beating at its chassis savagely, he sank his fingers into metal and lifted the machine high, hurling it at the others closing in on Cheyenne, Billy and Rune. The all collided in a metallic heap, sparks flying freely as the other HIVE students managed to get to their feet.

"Don't just stand there! We've got a mission to finish!" He jabbed a finger at the flag at the end of the course, looming thirty feet above them. Rune was looking more than a little offended at being talked to like a subordinate by this newcomer, but the others were eager to follow Cyborg. Eventually the gray-skinned teen followed after; more pikes and whips greeted them along the way, and they met more turrets and drones eager to fill their field with laserfire. While the Haights fought those machines, Cyborg looked back to Billy.

"Billy, on me, we're pulling a fastball! You be ready with those clones!" The red-clad teen nodded sharply, speeding up to pull in front of the rock-like figure. He leapt up where Cyborg could catch his feet, and with a roar the taller teen hurled Billy as hard as he could up toward the flag. As he flew, Billy spawned a clone that seized him by the wrist and hurled him further and another that did the same. Then he was there, holding up the flag with a gigantic grin on his face as he stood triumphant, the Haights raising up a whooping cheer and Cyborg looking up with a smirk. Rune, however, was looking more than a little annoyed. Having his authority as team lead challenged was obviously going to raise issues between the two, but he didn't care right then. He had appearances to keep, after all.

"Attention!" It was Gunhawk, his voice taking on the tone of a drill sergeant, and automatically everyone in the room snapped straight up facing the instructors. Cyborg followed suit, curious now to see what had earned such deference from a crowd like this. He got his answer a moment later as a slight, almost average-looking older man in a white robe tripped with gold and a purple collar floated down toward from the instructor's perch on a small platform, Metallo beside him to the right. The Gray-haired man's face was fixed in a scowl as his gaze fell on Cyborg. The headmaster himself was here, and he didn't look happy.

"You think you're a clever sort, don't you? Sneaking into my academy, falsifying records, towing in one of my operatives to spin tales about how you saved his life, showing up my finest students in front of the entire student body, and destroying my property? You think you're clever, boy? Well I don't." Cyborg had been afraid of this, afraid that his cover wouldn't hold up to scrutiny. That this guy, Brother Blood, would recognize him as a fraud and dispose of him like he would any snitch. There was nothing he could do now, though. He stood straight, looking the man in the eye.

And then the scowl was gone, replaced with a charmed smile.

"I think you're brilliant. You're going to have a bright future with the HIVE Academy, young man." Okay, that he hadn't been expected, and he released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Stone, was it? I'll be keeping an eye on you. Something tells me you're going to be one of our best." He turned away then, casting a brief, cold scowl back at the Haights, Billy and Rune. He thought for the briefest of moments that he could see Blood's eyes flashing red, and the others' as well. That couldn't have been good. "I expect better from the rest of you. Dismissed!"

Cyborg didn't bother to look at the next team stepping up to the plate, watching Brother Blood leave. He felt a hand on his shoulder then, and he turned to see Metallo offering him a faint smile.

"Quite a show you put on out there. I think you've earned a place on our First Team after that. You'll be reporting to and me for private lessons from now on, same as the rest of them." He nodded, and then started off to follow Brother Blood. The rest of the First Team was leaving as well, Braxon and Billy slapping their new teammate on the black and offering their congratulations while Rune simply scowled and stormed off. Cyborg was ready to continue on back to his quarters when he felt another hand on his arm. It was Cheyenne, casting a surprisingly warm smile toward him.

"Welcome to the team, Stone. Good to have you aboard. If you ain't busy later, I could use a lil' help studyin' for that test on heists comin' up."

Supervillain high school or not, some things really didn't change.

 **TTTTT**

Three weeks had passed, and Robin was getting worried. Sure, Cyborg was reporting in regularly, and he was making mention of some kind of 'class project', but it seemed like with every check-in that his teammate was getting more and more distracted. He was talking about taking Cheyenne Haight to a school dance, for God sake! A school dance when he was supposed to be finding out what these lunatics were planning!

"What's he thinking? He knows that there are lives at risk every second the HIVE is still operating!" He was pacing now, pinching the bridge of his nose as the screen went blank after Cyborg had disconnected again. Around him, Raven was fixing herself a pot of tea while Terra and Beast Boy were having a grand time of messing around with the robotic double of their teammate (Beast Boy draping it in a dress while Terra had painted the face with bright red marker). Starfire approached slowly, trying not to add to the other's stress.

"He is working hard at his task, Robin. He will have what we need soon." She paused for a moment. "I think he is merely trying to enjoy the feeling…being normal for a time." Robin looked back at the Tamaranian at that, slowly trying to relax himself.

"I know, Star, but the longer he stays there the more dangerous gets. If his cover's blown there, they'll kill him." He looked down at his communicator, shaking his head as he clipped it back onto his belt. "It might be time to go on the offensive. "

The communicator sounded sharply, catching Terra and Beast Boy off guard and stumbling over each other and the robotic double. Robin was quick to respond, a surge of excitement rushing through him.

"Robin, I got it. I'm in the mainframe now."

"Good work, Cyborg. What have you found?"

"Something big, man. I think I've found out what this class project of ours is. Something called an…"

"Ionic amplifier." Came another voice over the comm, and he could see Cyborg turning sharply to face the speaker. "Please, we need some privacy."

A second later the Titans heard nothing but static.

 **TTTTT**

 **Whew! I cannot tell you how long I've been wanting to update this story at long last, or how satisfying it is to see this done. Thankfully with life slowing down I should be able to get back to this more regularly, and I'm hoping to have part two of this episode up soon. Read and review, folks, any criticism is welcome!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Whew. Four beers and long night later I can finally turn this one in. Gotta say right now, thank God for streaming sites, because I haven't been able to find the season 3 DVD to refresh my memory for the life of me. But enough talk, you're here for the Teen Titans action, and that's just what you'll get!**

 **As usual, I own nothing. This is all the property of DC, Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network.**

 **Episode 3: Deception Part 2**

 **TTTTT**

"Well this is a surprise Mr. Stone. Or should I say Cyborg?" Brother Blood's voice sent a chill up Cyborg's spine, the man's frame barely visible in the shadows. He approached slowly, a confident smile on his face as he strode toward the Titan. Sharpes was at Blood's left while Metallo flanked him on his right, his expression…odd, really. Impassive, stoic and yet with a trace of…was that pity? Whatever it was, Cyborg wasn't going to take any chance with these two. He was on his feet in an instant, the cloak dropping and his arm morphing into a cannon aimed squarely at Brother Blood's chest.

"Relax, I don't want to fight." The man said in an insanely calm tone, still smiling as he held up the device pictured on Cyborg's screen. "A remarkable device, really; Compact, elegant, but nothing compared to you." The Titan clenched his teeth as he stared between the two, and then back at Sharpes. The gray-haired thug shrugged, absently rubbing at what Cyborg realized must have been a broken nose.

"Sorry, kid. Blood got a whiff of the scheme peakin' in my mind…" Metallo shut the man up with a sharp backhand, sending him reeling and swearing as he clutched his nose and spitting blood.

"What do you want from me?" Cyborg demanded, taking another step back, still aiming that canon at the headmaster. Blood just smirked, stepping ever closer, heedless of the weapon aimed at him.

"Oh, it's not what I want. It's what you want the matters, and what I can give." Those eyes flashed red for an instant and, calmly, Blood reached out to that canon. He… _felt_ something run up his arm, his eye going wide as, for the first time in years a sensation beyond the basic pain receptors in his cybernetics. And then, right before his eyes, that arm became…flesh and bone. Honest to God living tissue, and he could only stare in stunned silence.

"My hand. It…it's real. I can feel it…" That surge of hope died quickly, though, as in an instant it was returning to that cold, unfeeling metal. "No!" He fell to his knees, staring down at that the steel he had grown so accustomed to. A hand clasped his shoulder, and he looked up at the face of the HIVE headmaster.

"Serve me, Cyborg, and I can make you what you once were. I can give you back your life." Metallo stepped forward then, squatting down to look the teenager in the eye. He swore that he thought that he could see sympathy in the man's synthetic face as he spoke.

"Take the offer, son. One man to another, there's nothing you'll want more. I know your situation. Sooner or later your organic parts will fail, one by one, and you'll lose more of yourself as they have to be replaced. It's too late for me; there's not enough flesh and blood left for Brother Blood to work with. But you…you can be a man again. Live a normal life, know the feeling of a summer day's wind on your face, growing stronger under your own power, breathing in the scent of fresh flowers, feeling the warmth of a woman's flesh under your hand. I would give anything for that."

Cyborg could only stare between the two men, stunned into silence. It couldn't be like Metallo was saying. His father had told him the cybernetics would keep his organic parts functioning the rest of his natural life, but…maybe that was just theory. Metallo had lived this life longer; he had the practical experience over his father's analysis. What if Corben was right?

There was only one answer to give.

"I'll do anything you ask."

Blood smiled at that.

"Good. Then I think it's time for the other students to see our little class project."

 **TTTTT**

Terra was worried for Cyborg. She had unshakeable faith in his dedication to the team, his friends, especially considering how quickly he had accepted her when she had admitted to her own moment of weakness. As much as she believed that he was just in trouble, that something had gone wrong and that he needed their help right now, there was a thought in the back of her mind, one that brought her shame to even consider and which she tried to shove away to the dark corners of her mind.

What if the HIVE had offered him something, something he wanted more than anything? Starfire wasn't the only one he'd talked to about his old life, when he'd been a normal teenager, the star quarterback and a model student, when he'd been able to live his normal life to the fullest. How it had been taken away from him in an instant. She'd heard Slade talk about Brother Blood once or twice, mentioned that he had some real power with the arcane and the like. If that lunatic had gotten to him…

She rammed that thought back down. Who was she to even dream of questioning Cyborg's loyalty? She'd been ready to sell the Titans out for weeks before she'd finally decided that she couldn't go through with it. Cyborg had been a founding member for God's sake, how could she even think he would turn his back on them? She focused on what she knew right then and there; Cyborg was more than likely in serious danger and in need of a rescue, and HIVE needed to be stopped. Robin had agreed, which was why they were all in the academy, creeping through the halls as silently as possible. Well, aside from Beast Boy. He was trying to haul Cyborg's robot double along with him, and while she normally have been right along there with him, she was focused on finding her friend and getting the hell out of here before things went South.

"This has been way too easy. No alarms and not a guard or student in sight." Robin muttered back to them, pulling a boomerang from his belt and peaking around a corner. He waited a moment before he gave them the all clear signal. He was right; this was too easy. Slade had always said HIVE ran a tight ship, and Brother Blood definitely not the sort to leave a gap in his security like this. Something was all wrong with this picture.

The floor in the hall came out from under them in an instant then, and they all went tumbling down before they could respond. She wasn't sure how far they'd fallen, but they landed with a good, hard thud on a cold metal floor. Everyone groaned as they stood, all on guard and taking a look around the cavernous room they were now in, probably a training course.

There had to be close to a hundred people, students and teachers, all gazing down at the Titans with looks of malicious glee and hate. Two of the teachers stepped forward, one an Asian woman with a katana in hand and the other a man with a heavily-modified M16 trained on them.

"Stand down, all of you. The brother wants an example made of them." The woman, she thought her name was Tsukuri from the news, shouted at the gathering, raising her sword for emphasis. They all obeyed without a word, turning to face the pillars at the far side of the room. There were the four HIVE students they'd fought before; the Haight twins, Billy Numerous, and Rune were all poised like predatory birds ready to swoop down and seize their prey.

And there, right in the middle of them was Cyborg in his disguise.

"Attack Patern Delta!" The words almost tore Terra's heart in two as she watched her teammate and the HIVE's First Team leaping down toward them, blasts of arcane energy hurtling toward Raven and Robin who barely managed to dodge the attacks, only for Billy's clones to swarm Robin while Braxton Haight's massive fist swung out at Raven.

Cheyenne Haight was slugging it out with Starfire when Terra managed to shake the shock from her system, hurtling toward the larger blonde on a car-sized boulder with two more flanking her. She hurled both at Cheyenne, forcing her to defend with heavy swipes of her fists that turned the boulders to dust. It distracted her long enough for Starfire to fire a point-blank blast at the redneck villain, sending her flying back with a scream that took her brother's attention away from Raven. More of Billy's clones moved in to fill in the gaps, though, four trying to climb onto the boulder Terra was perched on while others surrounded Raven as Braxton leapt toward Starfire to defend his sister. The geomancer grunted as she kicked one off, feeling his nose crunch under her boot only for the others to throw themselves at her, knocking her off balance and sending her down to the floor with them on top.

She couldn't see too much through the flurry of blows raining down on her; Raven was sweeping the clones around her away with an arch of dark energy, ripping a few of the turrets that had popped up down and throwing them at the red-suited goons before they could recover. One of the turrets went flying toward her then, and she shut her eyes tightly as it swept the Billies off of her, pinning them to the wall. Terra was on her feet in a second, casting a grateful nod to Raven before her teammate was thrown back by a blast of magic from Rune. The gray-skinned boy floated down toward Raven with a cold sneer, his hands already crackling with energy for another burst. She had to look away from the flash as both of the mages unleashed their powers at each other, black pushing against bright purple, neither willing to back down. Robin was on his feet then too, landing a flying kick at Braxton's back that sent the giant teen onto his face while Starfire hovered above Cheyenne, raining starbolts down that the older girl seemed to have little trouble dodging.

"Cyborg, it's time to drop the act!" Robin said frantically, dodging between his friend's punches as Cyborg lunged forward in the gap between him and Braxton, trying to parry with a pair of batons as he backpedaled. Cyborg glared at his former leader as he batted away the shorter Titan's weapons, booting him in the chest and sending him flying backward.

"This isn't an act."

While all this was happening, Beast Boy had still been struggling with the remote for the drone Cyborg. He gritted his teeth as he slapped the controls firmly, shaking it around and pointing it frantically at the HIVE First Team as they fought his friends.

"Come on! Do something!" He shouted, shaking the remote around some more before he finally spotted the 'attack mode' setting, and, after a moment of kicking himself, he selected it. Almost immediately the robotic double's arm shot straight out, and before Beast Boy could stop it a solid blast of blue energy fired out toward Starfire and Cheyenne. The blast caught Cheyenne in the middle of her charge at the alien, sweeping her away and into her brother. Another blast fired then, knocking a half dozen Billies away from Terra and forcing Rune back from Raven. Beast Boy blinked brief, then, looking satisfied with the results he started to try turning the robot on Rune.

Cyborg, however, wasn't going to let that happen. A huge, stone fist slammed into the robot's chest, sending the double sprawling back and its third blast off into the ceiling, raining debris down on the students who scrambled to get out of the way. That blow must not have damaged anything vital, because it responded with an uppercut to the chin that sent Cyborg reeling back several feet, and in an instant the two were on each other. Crushing blows that rang out through the great training hall smashed into both of them, Cyborg grunting and snarling in pain while his double merely glared and battled on.

For a moment it looked like the double had the upper hand. Cyborg was still dazed by the stunning blow, and he took several more hits to the chest and face before he regained his stance. He grit his teeth and balled his hand as hard as he could, a mighty haymaker swinging for the double's head. It connected with a shower of sparks and a crunch of metal. That was all Cyborg needed. With a bellowing cry of rage, the towering teeth lunged forward to sweep the robot off its feet with the two landing with a resounding crash. He slammed his fists down into that synthetic face, his face, over and over. He didn't notice when one punch that smashed through the robot's chestplate damaged his cloaking device, or when the disguise he had been wearing for so long flicked away to reveal his true form looming over his double. He didn't stop under he was pounding circuitry and metal into the floor, breathing harder than he had in months.

The fighting stopped then, the Titans gawking at their teammate as he stood over the broken form of the robot while the HIVE First Team stared at the newcomer they'd accepted as their leader. Rune was the only one still thinking beyond that, muttering lowly as he thrust his hands out toward the Titans. Before anyone could react they were ensnared in a bright purple sphere, trapping them inside. Raven and Beast Boy were fighting against it to no avail while the others simply stared at Cyborg.

"Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick…" Braxton Haight muttered, his sister staring wide-eyed beside him.

"Victor…you're one'a them?" Cheyenne took a step toward Cyborg, his face stuck with shock. She reached out toward him, putting her hand on his shoulder to turn him toward her. He looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite place, but that she thought was regret or sadness.

"No, children. He one of us now." Blood chimed as he floated down to the floor of the arena with Metallo at his aside. He grinned as he looked first at the Titans and then at Cyborg. He held the ionic amplifier in his right hand, slowly approaching Cyborg while everyone else could only stare in amazement.

"And I'm ready to prove it."

Terra felt her heart shatter at that. She didn't want to believe she'd heard it. Beast Boy looked even more devastated, staring out at his best friend in stunned horror.

"Cyborg, dude…" Was all he could manage to stammer out. Blood was fastening the device over Cyborg's arm, nodding toward the Titans.

"This will amplify your powers to unimagined magnitudes. Why don't you give it a test?"

Cyborg nodded, turning then to the Titans and leveling the canon at them all.

"Cyborg…" Robin muttered.

"No…." Stafire followed, looking as heartbroken as could be. Terra looked him squarely in the eye, tears starting to well as she pressed her hands against the barrier.

"Cy, don't do this. We're you're friends. Whatever he promised you, it's not worth it…" She pleaded, her fingers tightening against the arcane energy entrapping them. Cyborg simply shook his head.

"Sorry. I got new friends." He said with a note of finality, the canon already starting to charge. Terra felt her body go limp, utterly taken with grief as she watched her friend ready to deliver the final blow. She prayed to God or whoever would listen that he would change his mind, that he wouldn't turn on them. After a long moment she closed her eyes, not wanting to see it coming.

"Psych!"

Terra's eyes snapped open to see Cyborg turning sharply, firing the canon first and Blood and Metallo, then at the First Team, catching all of them completely by surprise and sending all of them sprawling. The blast was enough to break Rune's control over his trap, and the Titans suddenly found themselves free. Blood was the first to recover, snarling as he glared baleful red at Cyborg.

"TRAITOR! KILL HIM! KILL THEM ALL!" He roared in a voice that was too big to come from a normal man. All around them the students and instructors of the HIVE Academy were starting to rise, ready to butcher the Titans right then and there.

They never got the chance to attack, however, as all of the turrets in the training hall turned on them. Blasts of crimson energy fired into the crowd, sending students and instructors flying and ducking for cover as it peppered the room with laser fire. A voice boomed over the intercomm.

"Consider this my resignation, you pricks!" Nick Sharpes screamed as he activated every turret in the room and released every one of the training drones. Blistering lasers filled the air, students screaming and fleeing while instructors tried to lead them out and fight against the drones. Blood and Metallo were fully focused on the Titans, however. Red and green blasts of energy surged toward them, ready to vaporize all of the teenagers as they stood ready to fight. Cyborg was faster, though, firing another blast to meet their attacks. Bright blue clashed against green and red, and blue won in the end, sending the others up into the ceiling and continuing on to catch Metallo and Brother Blood fully. The First Team never had the time to prepare another attack between the laser fire from the turrets and the crumbling debris raining down on them.

"It's too hot! We gotta get outta here!" Braxton shouted, already starting to scoop up Cheyenne and Billy in his massive arms, Rune following close behind while Metallo helped Brother Blood to his feet. As the First Team and the HIVE headmaster made their way out out the rapidly collapsing room, Cheyenne turned back to take one last look back at Cyborg, her face a mirror of the Titans' only a few moments before.

"You coulda been one've us. I thought we…"

"I coulda been a lot of things, Cheyenne." Cyborg replied, looking back at her with no small amount of regret. He held out his hand toward her. "You don't have to stay with them. You and Braxton can live another life."

For a moment it looked like Cheyenne was actually considering that offer, a brief flicker of hesitation on her face. She turned away from him then, shaking her head as she fled along with the rest of her team. They were gone a few moments later, and Cyborg could only look just a little solemn at the girl's choice before he turned to face the rest of the Titans.

"Let's get out of here." He looked up then at the hanging box of the control room, were Sharpes was waving down at them frantically. Apparently he was going to have some company in there soon. "And take our crooked friend up there too."

A few moments later Raven had them engulfed in a great, shadowy bird, one claw extending to snatch Sharpes out of the control room and carrying him off out of the academy.

 **TTTTT**

"Hey, Cy, you got a minute?" Cyborg looked back over his shoulder at Terra standing in his doorway. He didn't quite turn to fully face her, but he gave her the nod that told her it was okay to come in. She stopped just behind him, smiling softly as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You holding up alright? It got pretty heavy back there toward the end."

"Yeah, I'm doing alright. Got everything back in order. That ionic amplifier got fried, though. Shame, too, that coulda been useful if we ever get any more heavy hitters coming into town." Cyborg knew what she wanted to talk to him about, and he couldn't blame her. He sighed and turned to face her. "I gotta admit…I was tempted. I don't know if it was all an illusion or not, but…it seemed like Brother Blood was doing some real miracle work back there."

"Yeah…I know the feeling. Slade pulled that same con on me." Terra reached out and took his hand, looking him in the eye. "Of course I can't say I had any mind control put on me."

"Hey now, girl, don't get on yourself about that again. That's in the past." It was his turn to smile, ruffling her hair just a little, earning a laugh in response. His expression after a moment, though. "Even without him trying to poke at my mind, though…I think I still would have been tempted. Seeing Metallo there, what he's become…what I could become, it got me thinking."

"You'll never be like him, Cy." Terra said quickly, pulling him down just a little to get him at eye level. "Aside from the fact he was a bad guy before he got the robot-omy treatment, you've got one thing on him that will never fade away." She pressed her hand to his chest as she spoke. He couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah…that's what my dad always said. Thanks, Terra."

"Oh, Cyborg!" Came Beast Boy's familiar voice in a warning tone. All of the Titans were standing in the doorway then, grinning ear to ear.

"You left the Titans." Robin said as he waved around a bright pink tutu. "It's only fair that you go through the initiation again. Cyborg looked to Terra then, pleading. She only grinned and held up a pair of gag glasses complete with nose and mustache.

Oh, it was going to be a long week.

 **Behold! My lazy ass has finally turned in some work on this story! That said, I'm happy to announce that I shall immediately be getting to work on the next episode in a few short hours after this. One of the few perks of being between jobs is the free time. Until then, folks, read and review, and God bless!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Howdy folks! As promised I set to work on this the morning after I turned in the last chapter, and I have to say I'm happier with this episode than I ever imagined. Fair warning, this is going to be the darkest story yet. I also want to give a shout-out to the awesome people at the Teen Titans Amino. Thanks for a damn fine community without the insanity of Tumblr. But enough talk, on with the story! I still don't own Teen Titans. That's all DC and Cartoon Network.**

 **Again, this is going to be a very, very dark episode just shy of getting into the M rating. You were warned.**

 **Episode 4: Nightmare in Titans Tower**

 **TTTTT**

The police sirens cut through the night like a wolf's howl, the lights of the cruisers painting the streets in blue and red as they rode through Backport. John Dee swore as he ducked behind a dumpster, waiting for the black and white to pass by. There had to be two dozen out there searching for him now ever since the Bats had taken Scarecrow in a week ago, and every night they came closer to catching him. He'd barely escaped Batwoman the previous night, and now Batman was on his trail right along with the police.

What was he thinking? Scarecrow had been an imbecile. He put far too much faith in his fear gas, never considering once that after all these years that the GCPD would have some way of combating it. They hadn't even needed Batman to take him in! That fat idiot Bullock had personally knocked Crane on his ass with one punch after he'd gotten a good laugh through the gas mask.

Dee peaked around the dumpster to get a look at the road. The cruiser had passed by, and it didn't look like there was another coming. He readied himself for the sprint across the road to the next alley. He hadn't gotten more than a few feet before he felt his feet suddenly snap together, something tangling his legs. He cried out as he tried to stop his fall, only managing to scrape his palms as he fell against the pavement.

"It's over, Dee. You led us on a good chase, but it's time to go back to Arkham." He knew the woman's voice. Batwoman stood over him with a faint smirk, reaching down to slap a pair of cuffs over his wrists. He tried to get into her mind, but medication the doctors had put him on was still putting too great a hold on him, preventing him from accessing the full strength of his powers.

There was a scream then, and the hands that had seized his arms fell loose before he saw Batwoman collapse beside him. She was out cold by the look of it, but still breathing. As he felt the bola on his legs loosen he started to turn, tempted to finish the job of Batwoman only for a pale hand to slap down on his shoulder.

"Not today, Mr. Dee." The man that spoke was tall and gaunt, his hair shock white and features sharp as a butcher's cleaver, wearing a white robe trimmed in purple and gold. Dee narrowed his eyes.

"And who should I be thanking for this rescue?"

"Brother Blood, truly a pleasure. I have a job that requires your…unique talents." Dee's interest was piqued. He nodded as he rubbed the feeling back into his wrists.

"And what might that be?" He asked, eyes narrowing at the wiry man.

"Oh, just to help with some troublemakers in Jump City. Some misguided children who've decided to interfere with my plans. I think they're overdue for a doctor's appointment. And to prove that I'm here in good faith…." The touched his finger to Dee's forehead, and in an instant he felt all of the power that he'd been cut off from return to him. Not only that, he felt stronger than ever. Dee took a step back, looking down at his mortal coil. He scowled in disgusted.

"Well then, Brother," He said as he shed that pathetic Human image, gray prison overalls giving way to a dark blue tunic and cowl, his face peeling away from a grinning skull. "I think I can pencil in a new appointment."

 **TTTTT**

"It wasn't as good as the original." Beast Boy argued as the team piled back into the tower, all of them still pumped from the theatre and most of them still eating from a jumbo bag of popcorn.

"It was closer to the books." Cyborg said back to him as he drank noisily from his cup of half-watered Pepsi, almost absently. "That Mamoa guy looks more like how they described Conan, and he acts more like him too."

"At least they took an original story." Raven added. "Beyond the Black River was one of the best." Beast Boy blinked in response.

"…there were books?"

"I'll just have to take your word for it. I never really read many books." Terra chimed with a shrug, absently slipping an arm around Beast Boy's and resting her head on the changeling's shoulder.

"A most glorious adventure film! Your Conan is very much like Tamaran's tales of our mightiest warrior, Mol'thor the Magnificent!"

"It was a great show, but it's getting late. Shayera said the League might need our help to round up some escapees from Blackgate tomorrow if they can't get them all tonight." Robin chimed, already starting down the hall. There was a collective groan from all of the Titans.

"Dude, we've been running ragged for the last two weeks. Between that show with the HIVE and Killer Moth and all those Intergang guys, I thought we earned a break." Beast Boy started with Terra and Cyborg in support.

"I haven't had the chance get my power cells to a full charge for five days now."

"And I'm overdue for a rinse." Everyone's memory shot back to the first time Terra had used their shower. They shuddered a little at the thought. Robin looked over his team, all but Raven looking a little pleading. Finally he sighed.

"I know it's been a rough month. I'll try talking to the League about it in the morning. Let's just all get a good night's sleep." There was a sigh of relief all around then, and Robin smirked as he watched his team starting off toward their rooms. He'd talk to Batman first thing in the morning about getting them some time off. There were still some plans for a vacation down the line that could be dusted off, and Supergirl had said that she would be happy to watch Jump City for a few days if they ever needed a breather. They'd earned it for sure, and he couldn't have been happier with their work. He waited a few moments longer before he started down the hall himself.

 **TTTTT**

Doctor Destiny smiled faintly to himself as he peered at each of the tired minds, poking around at their most vulnerable thoughts. Brother Blood's blessing was giving him power like he'd never known before. He couldn't just see their fears, their doubts, the things that would help him to twist their dreams into fatal prisons. No, he could see their most treasured secrets too.

Those could have lent him a pretty penny if he weren't planning on killing them all right then and there. Oh well. He was going to have fun tonight anyway.

The only question was who to start with.

 **TTTTT**

After an hour of attempting to find something resembling a restful sleep, Raven had surrendered and started out toward the living room to find something to fall asleep to. She couldn't put a name to what she felt as she watched whatever low-budget horror film Sci-Fi was running now. It wasn't quite an incorporeal presence like a ghost or spirit, which could easily have been detected by her empathic magics, and there wasn't any sort of physical sensation like what would be aroused with someone sneaking in with a cloaking device.

She felt like she was being watched. Meditation hadn't made it any clearer what she was feeling, so she was simply keeping her eyes and mind open, watching for any sudden change while playing at being distracted for whatever or whoever was peering at them. Finally after twenty minutes of garbage-tier corn-syrup bloodletting she pulled out her communicator and punched in the code for the Justice League Watchtower on a hunch. She was surprised at how quick the response was.

"Raven? You're awake?" J'onn J'onzz asked her frantically, and Raven thought she could actually hear fear in the Martian's voice. She blinked at the question.

"I'm awake, yes. I was just wondering…"

"Raven, this is important; Are the others asleep?"

"I think so. Terra and Beast Boy are for certain, I'm not sure about the rest though. Why?"

"Go and wake them now. You cannot afford to waste a second." The Martian's tone left no room for doubts, and there was no mistaking the concern in the alien's voice now. Raven was on her feet in an instant, phasing through walls and floors to reach her teammates as quickly as she possibly could. She was in Beast Boy's room when she spoke into the communicator again.

"J'onn, are there any psychic criminals loose?" There was a long pause.

"John Dee. Doctor Destiny."

Raven's blood turned to ice water at that. She looked to Beast Boy and Terra, curled together with the television still going and illuminated their faces. Faces pale from some unseen terror, lips quivering. Beast Boy screamed, a sound of abject horror like she'd never heard from him before as he started to thrash and shake on the bed, Terra's voice joining him a moment later. Both were out of the bed in moments, quivering and fighting against whatever invisible demons were tormenting them.

She was at Beast Boy's side in an instant, shaking him and trying to wake him up, pouring her magic into him as she looked down at his pale form. All that earned was another piercing scream, and she barely avoided the boy's arm as he lashed out at his tormenter. Terra wasn't any better, and she looked around for anything she could use to tie them down. She settled for tearing the bedsheets off and wrapping them around her struggling teammates, lest they throw themselves out a window in their panic. When she stood, she realized that there were other screams coming from all around the tower.

Destiny had already gotten to the rest of the Titans.

"I'm coming down there now. I've helped people out of Dee's nightmares before. I'll need your help this time, though. Something's making him stronger than before."

"I'll be waiting." Raven said, looking down at Terra and Beast Boy as they fought against the sheets, screaming at the top of their lungs.

She swore that she would make the doctor's nightmares a thousand times worse.

 **TTTTT**

Beast Boy couldn't move. He couldn't budge an inch as he hung upside down from a hook that dripped something thick and warm onto his chin. His wrists were tied behind him with what felt like a zip-tie bound so tight that he could feel the plastic grind against his bones. The smell of blood was so thick in the air that he was amazed that the whole place wasn't red. He snapped his head back and forth to see get an eye for his surroundings; Rusted metal, leaking pipes and chickens hung just like him on what he realized was a conveyor belt. At the end of that belt was a long wooden table, a dozen shadowy figures lined. There was a horrible, slavering sound coming from them as they tore at something that was screeching between them.

"You try so very hard to convince this city that you're just like them. You try to convince them that you aren't just another freak of nature, something to point and throw peanuts at in a sideshow." The voice was deep, chilling to the bone and unlike any he'd heard before. He snapped his head around again to find the source of that voice. A figure was standing beside a lever on the wall, towering and broad, wearing a dark blue suit and a cape and cowl. A grinning skull looked back at him, golden eyes fixed on the struggling green teen. "But you're not fooling anyone."

"Who are you?" He shouted at the man, trying to fight against the tie at his wrists, only to cry out as he felt it grind harder against the bones, blood pouring down his hands.

"Why, I'm the good Doctor Destiny of course, and this is your final appointment." He said in a bemused tone, one clawed hand reaching over and poking at Beast Boy's chest. "You can pretend all you like that you're one of them, but you know it's a lie. You're not a man, not even a boy. No, you're just another animal. You're just…meat."

With that, Beast Boy could make out the faces around that table. They were his teammates, the Titans and the Doom Patrol, and even his parents. Their faces were all wrong, with grins that were too wide, teeth that were too sharp and eyes burning as red as hellfire. Their mouths and hands were caked in blood, and the remains of one of those chickens laid between them on the table. His mother looked straight at him, a sharp-toothed grin on her lips as she ran her tongue along her dripping fangs.

"He's looking good and juicy! Come on, get him down here!"

Doctor Destiny laughed lowly at that.

"Well, who am I to argue with the customer?"

He slammed the lever forward.

 **TTTTT**

Everything was crumbling around her. Titans Tower was gone, sunk beneath the waters of the bay along with most of her friends. The bloody smear on the pavement was all that was left of Starfire, crushed beneath a rock even the mighty Tamaranian couldn't lift. She screamed as she tried desperately to stop it all, the quakes that swallowed whole building and the dust clouds that scoured the skin from everyone they touched. It was all too much. She couldn't control it.

"Terra!"

No, not him.

"Get away!" She screamed as loud as she could, not facing the boy she loved. Maybe if she didn't look at him, he wouldn't be hurt.

"Terra!" The voice was closer this time, and she could feel his presence behind her. She refused to look at him even as the dust around her started to roll even faster, stripping the bodies to skeletons before sweeping them aside. She felt a pair of thin arms wrap around her, and she quickly pulled back away from them.

"No! Get away before I hurt you! Please, go…" She never got to finish the sentence, a scream at her lips as another surge of her power ripped a pair of stone slabs from either side of Beast Boy. She let out another when they slammed together, spraying her face with blood. All that was left of him was an arm cut off at the shoulder laying limp on the ground. Tears streaming down her face, she fell to her knees and scooped up that severed limb, holding it tightly to her as she sobbed.

"D-Don't….don't lose control."

"Dear child, how can you lose what you never had?"

 **TTTTT**

"Their vitals are all over the place." Cyborg grated, looking down at his teammates with an expression of fear, heartbreak and hatred for the man that had put them in this state. It was just him and Raven; Robin, Terra, Starfire and Beast Boy were all under Destiny's control. He didn't know why he wasn't affected, and he didn't care right now. All that was on his mind was the condition his friends.

"It's worse than before. It took Dee four hours to bring his wife into this condition. Another two to kill her." J'onn said, his hand pressed down to Beast Boy's forehead. Raven frowned as she looked down at the others.

"How long?" She asked, not needing to add 'before what'.

"I would say another ninety minutes." The Martian said. Cyborg was trembling with barely contained rage at that news. Raven flinched as her teammate finally let it loose, slamming his hand through the wall and kicked aside a trash bin.

"It's Blood. He gave Dee this power. He's doing this to get back at me."

"Victor…" J'onn started, but Cyborg cut him off with a growl.

"Don't you even start with that 'don't blame yourself' crap. This, what's happening to my friends is because of me. I'm going to put a stop to it." He was out the door in an instant, and Raven swore as she followed after him.

"You have no idea where he is. How are you planning on stopping him?"

"Got a list of HIVE safehouses. I'm gonna knock down the door at every one until I find him." Raven knew that tone. There was no way she was going to talk him out of that plan, and she couldn't waste the time in trying right now.

"You can't do it alone. Send the list to the League, let them help." Cyborg looked at her for a long moment, trying to work down his rage at Destiny for what he'd done. Finally he turned away, starting out the door again.

"Help J'onn get them back. I'll send the list to the League, but Dee's mine when we find him."

He was gone a moment later. Raven frowned as she turned back to face J'onn, focusing now on Terra.

"I will need your help to free them. I cannot match Destiny's telepathic power on my own. Your empathic magics will be key to breaking through the barrier of fear trapping them." The half-demon looked down at her friends with an uncertain look, reaching out to take Terra's hand in hers. She was more than a little dubious about the idea; Going into her own mind was one thing, she had the tools for it literally on her. Going into someone else's? That was going to be tricky, even with a telepath as powerful as J'onn holding her hand through. She had no choice, though, so she merely nodded to the Martian.

"I'm ready when you are." J'onn gave his affirmative, looking down to the restrained and still screaming geomancer.

"Let us hope we are not too late."

 **TTTTT**

"You're a bum, Robin. You've been leading this team for years and what have we got to show for it? We stumble from one disaster to the other, and the crime isn't any better. You nearly get us killed every week. It's time for a change in leadership." Cyborg and Robin were squared off in the middle of the blackness, and the hate and anger in their voices made Starfire's heart break. Opposite them, Beast Boy and Terra were looking much the same, glaring at eachother and looking like they were ready to come to blows at any moment.

"Admit it! You're sleeping with that gray whore behind my back!"

"Right, like you're one to judge! I'll bet you paid for all those lessons from Slade with that mouth of yours! I don't have to take this from you!"

"Friends, please! Do not fight!" Starfire begged, starting to move to break up first Robin and Cyborg, and then Beast Boy and Terra. Something stopped her half-way to her friends, though, and she gasped when she felt cold, sharp fingers wrapping around her. She fought against that grip as hard as she could, but even her herculean strength couldn't resist whatever was pinning her arms to her side.

"Now now, Princess, we're going to let this conflict sort itself out. After all they've been bottling up, don't you think it's about time they vent?" Came a voice as cold as a Bakuran winter, and the hand that held her pulled her back toward a grinning, bleached skull, baleful eyes boring into her. She heard more shouting, and suddenly there was the sound of fighting. She wanted to look away, but the hand turned her to face them, and another snapping around her head to hold her head in place and keeping her eyes wide open.

"Take a good look. They've been holding back for so long, it's only natural that this was going to be the end of it." The voice trailed off then in a wicked chuckle, the Tamaranian looking on as her friends fought among themselves. She started to weep when the first slash of blood struck her in the face.

 **TTTTT**

"Tim!" The voice was shockingly familar, and Robin had to stop in his tracks. No, no it couldn't be her. He turned to face the source of that cry, breathing in a sharp gasp.

He knew that face. The pale, soft features, the dark, silky hair, the cheap dress and jacket. This all wrong. She was gone, he'd seen her sucked back into Clayface years ago. She couldn't be real.

"Poor little Annie. She was such an innocent thing, wasn't she? She trusted you to protect her from dear old dad. How did you do with that task?"

As he spoke, Robin saw the brown tendrils shooting out from the shadows to seize Annie by the legs and around the neck, dragging her back toward the man that Robin knew was waiting back there. He tried to lunge forward, to stop Clayface once and for all. He never got more than a few feet away before a giant gloved, clawed hand seized him, pinning his arms to his body, holding him in place as he watched Annie asborbed back into the hulking form.

"And she wasn't the first you failed. Couldn't even save daddy, could you?" The scene changed suddenly, and in an instant Robin was looking at his father knelt before him, a faceless man leveling a gun at the old crook's head. His father's face was slack, bloody and battered, and those green eyes were fixed on Robin's face.

"Help me, Tim."

There was a flash and a thunderous boom.

"Who else will you fail? Raven? Beast Boy? Or maybe..."

"Robin!"

Robin's blood froze in his veins.

"Starfire..." He snapped around to see the source of that voice, and wished he hadn't. The other Titans were curled and writhing on the floor, screaming in agony as they were torn apart at a cellular level. The same way Slade had planned to kill them before, when he'd planned to have Robin as his protégé. He sprinted to them, taking up Starfire's trembling form and knowing he could do nothing, all while the desire to break the man who was doing this flooding through his mind. But there was no one to fight, nobody to force to stop this. All he could do was watch, and pray for a way to end it.

"You call yourself a hero, Tim? Look at them; they're dying. You know how to end it."

He did know, looking down at the sharp, shining blade of one of his boomerangs he'd pulled from his belt, and then down at his dying team. He could end their pain right then and there, and then hunt down the man who'd made him have to deliver that mercy.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, raising the boomerang.

 **Well, this was easily my favorite chapter to write so far. I can't wait to get onto part 2, and I'll probably end up pumping it out in a day or two. Hope y'all enjoyed as much as I did! Read and review, and God bless.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well, with a few beers in my system and boredom overtaking me, I am getting back to work on this story! This episode has been a blast to write, and the next should be close behind it. Before I start, though I want to ask you people something. Should I keep doing the Justice League-style 2 part episodes, or force my lazy ass to just do the full episodes in one chapter? That said, let's get on with things!**

 **I own nothing. DC and Cartoon Network own Teen Titans….which may be coming back.**

 **Episode 4: Nightmare in Titans Tower Part 2**

 **TTTTT**

As the world split around her, Terra knew there was only one way to end it before she destroyed everything on the planet. Magma was starting to rise now as the volcano underneath Jump City was erupting, poisonous gas filling the air. Terra wouldn't be around to choke to death on it, though; she would plunge the stone knife through her heart before that happened. She had always been afraid this would happen, that she would lose control to such a degree that the entire world would pay the price for it. It had already taken the lives of her friends, the city she called home, and the boy she loved.

Terra wouldn't let herself take anymore. She wouldn't condemn the whole world because she couldn't control herself. Tears streamed down her face as she started to push the knife in, feeling the sharp edge biting into her skin, blood trickling down her chest. It would be over soon, and the world would be safe from her. She only wished she'd had the courage to do this before Beast Boy had died.

"Stop!" Terra's head shot up at that voice, and her eyes went wide at the sight before her.

"Raven? No, I…I saw you…"

"It wasn't real, Terra. None of this is real." Raven floated toward her, pulling down her hood to look at her teammate with a softer gaze than she'd ever seen from the gray-skinned girl before. Behind her was the green-skinned form of J'onn J'onnz, towering and commanding in her presence. Raven's hands were on her shoulders, the other girl's face leveling with hers as she spoke.

"You've proven you're stronger than this dozens of times now. You control this power, not the other way around." Terra looked down at the knife she'd been about to impale herself on. Blood was still pooling around the tip, running down her chest. As she looked back up at Raven, she let it fall away.

"But…but this could still happen. If…if I ever lost focus, if someone got in my head…"

"I will help you, Terra. I can help to bring you balance, but you must trust me." His voice was firm but…comforting. She nodded, letting the Martian step toward her, placing his fingertips to her temple where she could now feel a warmth radiating from them.

"They can't help you, Terra." The voice from earlier taunted, a laugh following, a bitter and mocking sound. She flinched for a moment, and she felt the wind around her starting to swirl and storm again, dust particles tearing at her exposed skin. "You've already caused so much death. What can mere mortals do against such reckless destruction, such weakness from you?"

Then there was a new voice, booming and strangely familiar. It took Terra a moment to realize it was Raven.

"Get out of her head!" It was like a goddess bellowing out her commandments, the empath's eyes flaring black and white as she snarled at the unseen tormenter. "You didn't kill the Justice League, and you won't kill her! We'll draw you out of her like poison is drawn from a wound!" There was a sharp, surprised yelp from the other voice, and in an instant she felt the presence that had been intruding in on her thrown back. She looked up at the other then as J'onn stepped back, the gray-skinned girl standing before her like the knight that had slain the dragon. Around them the dust clouds had settled, the Earth fell still and the magma began to drip back down into the crevices it had risen from. All was quiet as she stood up, facing the two with her face set firmly.

"Where to now?"

 **TTTTT**

Calling the League for help had turned out to be the best call he could have made. Between the two speedsters of Flash and Superman they'd managed to clear four of the six safehouses, but while they had unexpectedly found some of the Blackgate escapees, there was no sign of Dee. That raised some more questions, but they would have to wait. For now they still had two safehouses to go through; Superman and Flash would take the last in the city while Cyborg hit one just off the highway.

The dirt path was rough on the T-Car, and he grumbled at every bump that threatened to ding something on his baby. He shoved those thoughts aside quickly. The car wasn't important, just finding that bastard and bringing him down before he could take any of his friends from him. Two miles down the road he saw what he was looking for; an old bar and gas station that been meant for campers and hikers to fuel up before the trip home, now long since abandoned after an accident with a LexCorp tanker truck had led to several mutated animals roaming the woods. On the outside things looked exactly as they should have. The building was dilapidated, with wooden boards nailed over the windows and tape wrapped around the pumps that declared 'No Gas'.

The tire tracks, however, were a dead giveaway that someone had been here recently. Cyborg stopped well before the station, getting out to sneak around the other side of the building. He wasn't going to take any chances with this psycho. He crept slowly up around the back, noting that the handle was noticeably cleaner than one at the front. Someone had gone in back here. He had a good idea of who that might have been. Readying his canon, he reach out with his other hand to turn open the door. But then he stopped, and leveled that gun straightly at the the corroded metal. There was only one way out of there. No reason to play this quietly. No reason to play it any way but his.

He blasted the door down.

 **TTTTT**

The boomerang's blade was dripping red now as he turned to face the last two members of his team, still screaming and begging for the pain to stop. Beast Boy first, then Raven. He was going to make it quick and painless, just like with the others. He owed them that much. Robin fought back the tears as he knelt down to thrust the blade through the other boy's neck; Sever the spine and cut all nerves to the brain. End it in an instant. He lined the blade up, sighed.

"I'm so sorry."

"No, Tim." Robin shot around at that voice, Beast Boy forgotten and the boomerang falling from his hand. J'onn J'onnz, looming over him and with one hand reaching out to rest on his shoulder, nodded toward the Titan. "You haven't failed them. This is a dream, an illusion. Doctor Destiny is toying with you."

"Robin…" He heard Beast Boy wheezing through rapidly decaying lungs, his hand reaching up for Robin's arm. "Please, do it. I can't take it anymore…"

"Do it, Tim." A half dozen voices said in unison, and Robin looked to each of the Titans, the dead and the living as they all fixed their gaze on him. From the shadows more joined in; His father, Annie, Clayface, even Bruce in his full Bat suit. It was he that spoke, the steel blue eyes fixing on him as the man that had been a second father to him looked him squarely in the eye.

"You've failed so many times already, Tim. Do something right for once." Bruce's voice was like ice water sending a chill down his spine, and he looked down at the blade, still dripping red.

"Oh shut up!" Came a new voice from behind Robin and J'onn, right before a column of stone shot up from the ground under Bruce, sending him soaring away from Robin. His gaze shot around then and his eyes widened at the sight of Terra standing there with glowing eyes and hands, Raven opposite her. The blonde scowled at the other Titans, and the rest of those that had come to torment Robin, already starting to gather power again while Raven did the same. "I'm so sick of this Freddy Krueger crap."

The dream figures all let out an inhuman, piercing shriek then as they surged forward toward Raven and Terra, their faces distorting into horrific masks as whatever was driving them raged at this interruption. Robin was just starting to hurl the boomerang at the thing he had thought was Bruce when the false Terra and Starfire were engulfed in darkness and hurled straight at the apparition. The false Bruce batted the other illusions aside as if they were flies, the face Robin had known for so long melting away to reveal the snarling skull and burning yellow eyes. No, not Bruce anymore, it was just Doctor Destiny, and he was surging forward at the Titans and the Martian. The dream clones were melting into shadow and rushing back to join Destiny, and he sent them hurtling toward the Titans in oily black spikes that Raven barely managed to shield from with a wall dark magically energy. J'onn bolted forward with his right fist raised and crashing down onto Destiny's cheeks, but the man was unmoved. Destiny chuckled lowly as he seized J'onn by the throat, his cloak twisting and writhing into tendrils that entrapped Raven and Terra while Robin looked on, still half in shock.

"You're like a nasty little tumor, Martian." Destiny snarled into J'onn's face, the fingers of his right hand lengthening into dagger points. "Time for the good doctor to cut you out."

He was starting to thrust that hand forward when the steel-toed boot smashed into the side of his head, sending him flying back into the alley Clayface had slunk out of and freeing all three of the heroes he'd held captive. Robin grit his teeth as he readied a boomerang, eyes narrowed at the man that had forced him to live through that nightmare.

"Oh, children, I'm not nearly done here." Destiny growled, his body beginning to fade before Robin's eyes. The Titan screamed as he hurled the boomerang at this foe only to watch it clatter to the ground as it passed harmlessly through the air where Destiny had been less than a second before. He stood with a scowl as he ambled over toward the weapon, retracting the blades with a flick of his wrist while his teammates started to approach behind him.

"You okay, Robin?" Raven asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. He turned to face her, Terra and J'onn then, a steely glint in his eye. They all knew that look well.

"I'm alright. I'll be better when we stop Dee. Who's next?"

 **TTTTT**

The room was deserted, but there signs of life; Empty take-out boxes, water bottles, and fresh footprints in the dust testified that there was someone in here. There was a clatter of boots on concrete followed by a shout of surprise coming from a flight of stairs leading down toward the keg room. Cyborg ducked behind a shelf as he waited for whoever it was to come into sight, hoping that it would be his quarry, so he could end it right then and there. He was disappointed to see it was only a pair of HIVE goons, armed and armored and looking frantic. He shook his head as he stepped out of cover and fired the canon once, catching both men in the sides and sending them sprawling over the bar in a crash of broken glass and wood. There were no more footsteps from the stairwell, but he thought he heard voices.

Voices that he hadn't heard in years, which had no business being there. Calling his name.

"Victor." A male voice beckoned him, older and hauntingly familiar. He knew it was a trap, but that meant that Dee was down there. He started down the stairs, the canon prepped and ready to fire. Whatever he saw was going to be just an illusion, he kept telling himself. He had to keep that firmly in his mind.

"Please, Victor, breathe." Came the voice said again, more urgent this time, and this time he heard a scream following it. It was his own voice that time, and he knew the exact moment he'd first heard that sound. It only made him clench his teeth tighter.

"Get out of my head, you son of a bitch." He growled, knowing that Dee would hear that as clear as high-powered radio broadcast. There was no response, just another scream he knew all too well. He kept down the stairs, trying to block out the sounds coming from the keg room. When he finally reached the bottom, he had to stop at the sight.

His father was hunched over the table he'd been strapped to that night almost two years ago, the night his normal life had ended. He remembered how his body had rejected the cybernetics at first, and only through his sheer will had kept it from shutting down completely. He did his best to tear his eyes away from the scene, but he couldn't block out the screams or his father's pleading for him to stay alive.

"Look at it, lad. It's the way of all flesh." Cyborg turned to that new voice just in time to catch a fist under his chin that sent him flying backwards into a rack of shelves, kegs raining down on him with a resounding crash of metal. It took a moment for his vision to clear from the force of that blow, just in time to see Metallo looming over him with a scowl on the human side of his face. He was starting to raise his canon before a foot slammed down on his arm, pinning it down while Metallo rained down blow after blow on his face. "Your body failed you before, and look how it ended up. Now it's failing you again."

An iron vice seized around his neck then, lifting him off the ground as he choked and gasped for air. And then he was flying, thrown headlong back toward the table where his dream-self had be strapped, only now that figure was gone, and he was laid out on the cold steel. The manacles snapped around his wrists and angles, and steel bars wrapped around his torso as his father looked down at him. The old man's face was one of abject sorrow, tears freely flowing down his cheeks as he reached for his tools.

"Your body is rejecting the cybernetics. It needs more. I'm so sorry, Victor." Metallo was there then, looking over his father's shoulder. As he began to laugh, Cyborg saw that half-Human face flicker, a grinning skull with piercing yellow eyes gazing down at him. Cyborg screamed as the old man began to cut into his face.

 **TTTTT**

Starfire had given up her fighting by the time it was down to Robbin and Terra. The blonde was coughing and bleeding under their leader's boot, which was grinding down into her throat while the boy readied a boomerang. He was grinning down at her with blood dripping down his face; Beast Boy's, she thought, though it might have been Raven's too.

"I've been itching to do this for a long time, Terra. You were ready to stab us in the back, and now I'm going to stab you all over. It'll be messy. The least you deserve." He grated, tightening his grip on the blade. Terra was too battered to fight, and she could only choke out a curse as Robin started to stab down toward her face. Starfire screamed for him to stop, but he wasn't listening. She wanted so badly to shut her eyes, but those hands were holding them open, forcing her to watch every second. The tears were starting again, and she hoped they'd make her vision too cloudy to see clearly.

Then Robin went flying as a steel-toed boot crunched into his nose. It took Starfire a moment to realize who it was that had subdued the boy. It was….Robin?

"Nobody hurts my team, Dee." He growled, quickly booting the other, blood-stained Robin in the back of the head and sending him sprawling out unconscious. He spat on the body as he stepped over it toward Starfire. "Let her go."

Starfire felt the grip around her body tightening inexorably, and she screamed as it crushed her. Robin snarled, extending his bo staff and marching toward her with clenched teeth.

"I said let her go, Dee!" He screamed, charging toward her with the staff raised and ready to strike, while the voice that had whispered into her ear was laughing now, a contemptuous sound. Robin never made it to them, however.

"Azerath, metrion, zinthos!" The words boomed in Starfire's ear, and she suddenly felt the hands that had been pinning her arms to her body snap open with a scream from her tormenter as a dark wave crashed over them. The Tamaranian saw that the presence that had stood behind her was thrown back and now took the shape of a man in a dark blue suit and hooded cape, his face a grinning skull. She thought she recognized this man as Doctor Destiny from stories that Kal-El had told. A being that haunted people in their dreams. It all made sense now, and it caused a terrible rage to form in her stomach. With eyes blazing green she hurled herself at Destiny as he started to rise, sweeping him off his feet in a tackle that led him crashing into a wall hard enough to crack the concrete. Her fists rained down his face like a jackhammer, growling curses in her native tongue as she punched as hard as she could. She was sent flying back by a pair of tendrils that grew from Destiny's cape, which then wrapped around her throat in a crushing grip.

She was suddenly free when a pillar of rock shot out from the wall and smashed into the skeletal man's back, sending him flying away with a scream of pain, only to be caught fully in the face by a pale green fist as J'onn J'onnz lunged forward, his other fist swinging up to catch Destiny in the gut. Before her eyes the Martian shifted and took the form of a great, hissing snake, entrapping their foe in iron-hard coils. The Titans moved in to surround them, each wearing a mask of grim determination. Destiny only chuckled, the sound bitter and cold.

"You haven't won, not by a long shot. I still have the changeling, and now Mr. Stone, too. And not much time left, either." Destiny laughed as he spoke, chilling Starfire to the bone as he broke free of J'onn's grip with seemingly little effort. The Martian shifted back to his normal self, thrown back several yards, Destiny beginning to float in the air as he was freed. "Hmmm…now come to think of it that gives me an idea. I think we need a change in scenery."

In an instant the world around them changed, a scene of dripping pipes, rusty conveyor belts and a horribly sweet and sour stench. Blood pooled so thick that the air seemed to be made of it. Starfire looked down to see herself seated at a long table with the other Titans and J'onn. There were plates loaded down with bloody bones and unidentifiable scraps of meat in front of each of them, no doubt the source of that stink. There was a shadow cast over the table, swinging from what she guessed from a chain from the outfline. She looked up at the source, and immediately wished she hadn't.

It was Beast Boy, hanging upside down with hands chained behind his back and dripping blood from what looked like dozens of scratches, cuts and even a few places where it looked like he'd been bitten, his body quivering with his heavy breathing.

"Beast Boy?" She asked, reaching out toward him with a gentle hand. Slowly he turned his head to look at the source of that voice.

He screamed at the sight of her.

 **TTTTT**

They were all around him now, the monsters that were wearing his friends' skins. The pain from his wounds was excruciating, and the hot blood running down his body stung from the many wounds they'd inflicted on him. The thing that looked like Starfire had reached out toward him before he'd thrown himself away from her, and he could still see the flesh stuck in Terra's teeth, those pearly white he thought looked so pretty before now dripping with blood. The blonde was simply staring at him now, her mouth moving like it was trying to form words, but all that came out was a horrible, hissing sound that should have come from a komodo dragon. When she reached out again, her dagger-like claws glistened in the dim light, and he fought against his chains with wide, horrified eyes.

"Get away from me!" He screamed, struggling against his chains for the hundredth time that night, but this time he could feel them giving way. He felt a new surge of energy as hope began to rise in his mind. He reached out to feel for his power, willing himself to become like a lion. He almost burst with happiness right then and there as he felt his body change shape, but he knew it couldn't dwell on that. With a roar he threw off his chains and hurled himself at the monster pretending to be Terra, snarling as he tried to snap those teeth around her neck. She hissed back in his face, pushing back with her legs to little result. An arm tried to wrap around his neck to pull him off of the creature, but he struck out with one paw at the attack's chest, earning a screech of pain from what looked like Robin, and he grinned to himself at the sight of the blood running down his chest. More hands, tried to pull him away then, and he fought with all he had, but the one he figured was the fake Starfire was too strong. The lion was gone in an instant, though, replaced by a great, looming allosaurus that snapped its jaws around the monster's arm. It screeched horribly as he shook his great, scaly head violently, slamming her into the wall before he turned on the rest. The false Raven was starting to hiss and growl as it worked up what looked like his teammate's all too familiar magic, and he barely managed to shift into a rat in time to avoid the chains that swung around where the dinosaur had been standing.

"Beast Boy!" A voice shouted in his head, and he stopped briefly in bewilderment. He knew that voice, but…no, it had to be a trick. It couldn't have been J'onn. He morphed again, becoming a ram that came crashing into the false Raven and catching her fully in the gut, carrying her forward on his horns until he hit the wall. He started to trot back, ready to tackle her again with a chuff of his bleeding lips.

"Garfield! Stop! It is a trick!" This time he stopped completely, trying to find the source of that voice. The monster that had his father's face was looking at him with its dagger-like fingers raised in a placating gesture, needle teeth gleaming. "This is not real. Doctor Destiny is clouding your mind. These are your friends."

"Don't….don't listen to them, Gar…" Another voice, shockingly familiar said from across the room then, and Beast Boy snapped his attention around toward the source. Though it took him a moment to recognize her face and scent from the blood that soaked her small body, he was sure it was Terra, dangling from a pair of meathooks chained to the ceiling. She was whimpering and shaking, bleeding from a dozen wounds that looked like bite marks to him. "They…got us first. Wanted to save you for last. They made me watch while they…while they sucked the meat off everyone's bones. Starfire…oh God, she screamed so much…."

He felt a hand touch his shoulder then, and without a moment's hesitation he turned on the figure, suddenly looming over them as he let a massive gorilla arm smashed into the figure's ribs. They went sprawling away into another, finally recognizing them as the monsters wearing Robin and Stafire's faces. He didn't know what was real anymore, his mind too clouded by fear and pain to think clearly. All he knew was that Terra was crying out for help, and he needed to be there. He had barely started lumbering toward her before he felt something pulling him back, wrapping around him and dragging him along. He was already fighting it, switching between half a dozen different species before he realized he knew this sensation; this was Raven's magic wrapped around him. It made him finally stop his struggling, looking back at what he'd thought was one of the monster tormenting him, floating behind him and looking down at him with piercing, blood red eyes.

Terra was screaming again as one of the things, the one that had spoken with J'onn's voice, approached her bleeding form. It snarled as it ambled forward, raising one clawed hand toward the blonde girl.

"This is not Terra, Beast Boy." It was J'onn's voice again, and Beast Boy felt his eyes go wide as he saw those claws sink into Terra's chest. The scream that came from her lips was…wrong. It was too deep, too angry, it had no business coming from a girl that had just been skewered through the chest. And then Terra was gone, replaced by the snarling visage of Doctor Destiny. As he turned back to look at the monsters he'd been fighting, he saw only his teammates, battered and shaky but still ready to fight the man that had tormented them. Raven let him go free, and he turned to face that lunatic with bared teeth.

"That's it! Everyone dies!" Destiny bellowed, his cape twisting and splitting into half a dozen tendrils that shot out to ensnare each of the Titans while his hands reached out to wrap those talons around J'onn's head, squeezing his skull and intending to see if pop like a balloon right then and there. "Starting with those children, Martian. You're going to watch them all die before I finish with you."

Beast Boy felt the tendrils tightening around his neck, choking off his breath while spikes dug into his skin, ready to end him and his friends. His scream joined with the other Titans'.

 **TTTTT**

The pain was even worse than when he'd gone through this for real. Cyborg knew this was an illusion, but Destiny's power was so strong that his brain didn't care. It thought his nerves were being brutalized, and the rest of his body reacted accordingly. It was also a matter of proximity, and with the madman right there in front of him, he could pour all of his psychic power into that attack. He fought as hard as he could against the restraints, but they didn't even budge. He couldn't so much as twitch more than his finger while the illusion wearing his father's face prepared more of the cybernetics. It felt like his body was on fire, and all the while Destiny was laughing like a loon, the face flickering between that skull and Metallo's half-human visage.

"Oh, don't worry, son. It won't last too much longer. I'm almost done with your friends and the Martian. You'll be joining your friends again before you know it." Destiny taunted him, his voice like two men speaking in perfect synch. Cyborg fought again against the restraints, writhing to find any leverage he might be able to use. A hand shoved him back down then, and Destiny snarled in his face as he scraped his claws down the Titan's chest with a horrible, metallic screech. "Don't be a difficult patient. The good doctor hates those."

"Go to hell, Dee!" Cyborg shot back, wanting to spit in that half-human face as it flickered back to Metallo's mug. There was a twitch in that ruined mug then, a look of…was that pain? Something was distracting him, pulling his attention away from Cyborg. The rest of the Titans and J'onn must have been putting up a hell of a fight in that dream world of his. He tested the restraints again, and this time he felt them start to give as he pushed out with his arms. Yes, Destiny's hold was slipping. With a yell of pain, anger and determination he broke free of those clasps, throwing both Destiny and the dream version of his father aside, standing tall before the madman starting to rise back to his feet. Cyborg didn't give him the change, leaping forward and smashing his fist into Destiny's cheek and snapping his hand around the man's wrist.

"You like playing with people's dreams, Dee?" Cyborg grated from between clenched teeth, punching again and again at that face that had looked so smug before. "Well I'm gonna be your living nightmare!" He punctuated that statement with a rising knee that sent Destiny flying backwards into the wall. The illusion was fading now, the visages of Metallo and that grinning skull flickering between them and the real John Dee. The rather average looking, brown-haired White man was bleeding from the nose and from split lips, and already his face was starting to swell. He surged upward then, the skull and blue rood returning as he slashed at Cyborg, only to catch another fist in gut that knocked all of the wind from his lungs. Destiny wretched violently, spitting up blood and bile while he tried to catch his breath.

"Get up! I'm not done with you!" He bellowed at the man, grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt and slamming his forehead into that face. He felt bone and cartilage crunch and blood spray his face, and he smirked faintly at the nasal scream that came from Destiny's lips. He threw him back over his shoulder toward where the table had been in that nightmare, seeing it was a worn, half rotten wooden thing now that buckled and splintered under the weight of the crashing man. He stormed forward, leveling his canon squarely at Destiny's face. "Sweet dreams, Dee." Cyborg couldn't help but smirk when Destiny flinched away from him, so focused on the canon that he didn't see Cyborg's other hand fire outward toward his cheek. The blow came so suddenly that the criminal didn't have time to react, simply going out cold from the impact. The Titan just shook his head and retracted the hand, the cable attached to it wrapping back into his arm. The job was done, and the rest of the Titans should be safe.

 **TTTTT**

In the nightmare, the Titans had thought that it would be over soon. Cyborg had been too late, and now Doctor Destiny was going to finish them off right then and there. His laugh had been as dreadful a sound as they'd ever heard, and each cursed the fact it would probably be the last sound they heard.

Then Destiny's voice became a scream of pain, and the tendrils fell slack. They all stopped to gawk as those clawed hands dropped J'onn and snapped around Destiny's head, as if he were in agony from a headache they wouldn't imagine. J'onn was the first to speak, looking down at their foe with a faint smile.

"Cyborg has won. Our faith was well-placed." He said while Destiny writhed and began to fade before finally he was gone. J'onn looked to each of them then, and then dipped his head in a slow nod. "I will see you on the other side."

 **TTTTT**

"So it was Brother Blood." Robin said with a frown, looking down at the resting forms of his teammates in the medical bay's beds. Terra, Starfire and Beast Boy had been hit hard by the experience, and though they'd been hesitant about getting back to sleep after what they'd experienced, they also knew that they'd need to rest. They'd earned it, too. Robin was just relieved to see their heart rates back to normal, the monitors a steady beep again. Raven was simply dozing off in the corner, where she'd been watching for any lingering psychic damage to their friends.

"Those HIVE goons Dee had with him kinda sold that theory. We'll have to pay him a visit once they've got him on those Psychic suppressants again, see how much he knows." Cyborg replied, arms folded in front of his chest as he looked out the window over Jump City. "One thing at a time though. This whole thing was too close a call."

"You did it better than anyone could have asked for." It was Superman that spoke, placing a hand on Cyborg's shoulder in approval. He smiled faintly, and and Cyborg couldn't help but smile back. Nobody could when they were faced with one of their personal heroes, much less when they offered such high praise. "Everyone made it out alive and the bad guys are in jail. I call that a good day."

"Thanks, Supes. But Blood won't stop here." Cyborg said, letting his smile fall just a little as he looked out toward the city again. "He's got it out for me, and that means he's gonna take it out on the team and the city."

"We'll be ready for it, Cy." Robin said with that smirk he'd perfected over the years. "Not like he's the first psycho with a grudge we've fought."

"Do not underestimate him, Robin. He still has a number of students under him, and he's shown a willingness to recruit outside help as well. The HIVE is a danger the Justice League cannot ignore." J'onn said, casting a stern look over toward the Titans. "But rest for now. This has been a traumatic experience."

"That being said…" It was Flash's turn to speak, appearing between Robin and Cyborg, true to his name, in a flash of red and yellow. "Who's up for early breakfast? Saw a Waffle House on the way back. I'll buy."


End file.
